" shouted Skipper Zeb from the shore.
"Make the most of un, and don't be takin' too much time to boil the
kettle at Swile Island!"

"Aye," shouted Toby, "we'll be makin' the most of un."

Charley watched Skipper Zeb standing on the shore and looking longingly
after them, and then turn back to his lonely work in the wilderness, and
he, himself, felt suddenly very lonely.

With unexpected suddenness the wind rose to half a gale before they had
spanned two-thirds of the distance to Swile Island. The boat shipped
several seas, and while Charley bailed the water out, all of Toby's
seamanship was required to keep her on her course, until at length, to
their great relief, a landing was made on the lee side of the island.

"I was sure we'd be wrecked again!" exclaimed Charley when he and Toby,
dripping wet, had hauled the prow of the boat upon the sloping rock of
the island shore.

"'Twere a bit rough," admitted Toby. "We'll have to bide here till the
wind goes down, and I'm thinkin' there'll be snow before we gets the
kettle boiled."

"And we haven't any tent!" exclaimed Charley in consternation.

"We'll be makin' a lean-to with the sail," suggested Toby. "We'll not
find un so bad. We'll make un before we boils the kettle."

The boat was unloaded, and under the lee of a big rock, where they were
protected from the wind also by a grove of spruce trees, Toby selected
two trees about seven feet apart, and five feet from the ground and
lashed a pole from tree to tree. He then cut several poles, and arranged
them evenly with one end resting upon the pole which he had lashed to
the tree and the other end sloping back to the ground. To make the
sloping poles secure and hold them in place, he laid another pole
between the trees, and on top of the sloping poles, lashing this also
firmly into place, and then placed a log over the ends of the poles on
the ground to hold them in position.

With Charley's assistance he now spread the boat sail over the poles,
and tied it into place. Then at each end of the lean-to be and Charley
placed a thick barricade of spruce brush. A floor of boughs finished and
made comfortable the shelter, and a fire built against a rock in front
of it, that the rock might serve as a reflector, soon made the lean-to
warm and snug.

There was no abatement of wind, and snow was falling thickly before they
had finished eating, and when they were through, Toby suggested:

"I'm thinkin' we'd better haul the