gelique soak them, as they did
at camp. I know, now. If we can't cook them we can make them swell up
in water, and starving men can exist on such food till they reach a
settlement. Of course we'll start as soon as you're all right."

"We'll start when we're ready. That's after we've had something to eat
and have made our new canoe. Never struck a spot where there was
likelier birches. 'Twon't be the first one I've built or seen built.
Say. Seems as if that God that Margot is always saying takes care of
folks must have had a hand in this. Doesn't it?"

"Yes. It does," answered Adrian, reverently. Surely, Pierre was a
changed and better lad.

Then his eyes rested on the wooden dinner-pot, and to his astonishment
it was not burning but hung steadily in its place and the water in it
was already beginning to simmer. Above the water line the bark
shrivelled and scorched slightly, but Pierre looked out for this and
with a scoop made from a leaf replenished the water as it steamed
away. The beans, too, were swelling and gave every promise of
cooking--in due course of time. Meanwhile, the cook rolled himself
over and about in the warmth of the fire till his clothes were dry and
all the cold had left his body. Also, he had observed Adrian's
surprise with a pardonable pride.

"Lose an Indian in the woods and he's as rich as a lord. It's the
Indian in me coming out now."

"It's an extra sense. Divination, instinct, something better than
education."

"What the master calls 'woodcraft.' Yes. Wonder how he is, and all of
them. Say. What do you think I thought about when I was whirling round
that pool, before I didn't think of anything?"

"Your sins, I suppose. That's what I've heard comes to a drowning
man."

"Shucks! Saw the mere's face when she broke that glass! Fact. Though I
wasn't there at the time. And one thing more: saw that ridiculous
Xanthippe, looking like she'd never done a thing but warble. Oh! my!
How I do wish Margot'd sell her."

"Shall I help you get birch for the canoe now? I begin to believe you
can do even that, you are so clever."

This praise was sweet to Pierre's vain ears and had the result which
Adrian desired, of diverting the talk from their island friends. In
their present situation, hopeful as the other pretended to find it, he
felt it best for his own peace of mind not to recall loved and absent
faces.

They went to work with a will, and will it was that helped them; else
with the poor too