of
difficulty as to the future, somehow felt convinced that Ben would
bring it out all right for him. He little imagined how much he would
help himself in escaping.

Chasing ponies and hunting walruses were not the only amusements Sable
Island afforded Eric. As has been already mentioned, the grassy dells
abounded with rabbits and the marshy lake and ponds with wild fowl.
The rabbit-shooting was really capital sport. The bunnies were fine
big fellows, as lively and wary as any sportsman could wish, and to
secure a good bag of them meant plenty of hard work.

It was the rabbit-hunting that found Prince in his glory. Had he been
a greyhound instead of a mastiff he could not have entered more
heartily into the chase. To be sure, he proved, upon the whole, rather
more of a hindrance than a help; but no suspicion of this fact ever
dashed his bright spirit, and not for the world would Eric have hinted
it to him. His redeeming quality lay in his retrieving, for he had
been carefully trained to fetch and carry, and he quickly learned to
hunt out and bring to them the victims of their muskets. The rabbits
were not killed in the mere wantonness of sport. There was always an
active demand for them at the hut, where Black Joe made them into
savoury stews.

About the same time as the walruses came great numbers of the Greenland
seal, which a little later brought forth their funny little whelps.
These looked like amphibious puppies as they sprawled about the beach
or scuttled off into the water. They took Eric's boyish fancy so
strongly that he longed to have one for a pet.

Ben soon gratified him by creeping cautiously upon the pack one day,
and grasping by the tail a fine, sleek, shiny little fellow. After a
couple of weeks' confinement in a pen, that Eric built for him, with
constant, kind attention, the captive became so contented with his new
life, and so attached to his young master, that he was allowed his
liberty. He showed not the slightest disposition to run away. Eric
found him quite as intelligent and docile as a dog, and taught him many
amusing tricks.

So long as the weather was fine Eric had plenty of cures for low
spirits. But in the winter the proportion of fine days to foul is very
small on Sable Island. For a whole week at a time the sun would not
appear, and long storms were frequent. Happily, there was one resource
at hand for the stormy weather.

Among the spoils of the _Francis_ was a lea