tant.

"What shall I do? Oh, what shall I do?" wailed Charley in wild despair.

What indeed could he do? Here he was, left upon the bleak rocks of the
Labrador coast, at the edge of an Arctic winter, a lad of thirteen, a
stranger in a strange and desolate land.

[Illustration: "SHE'S GONE! THE SHIP HAS GONE!" CRIED CHARLEY IN SUDDEN
FRIGHT.]

II

THE TWIGS OF PINCH-IN TICKLE

"You'll be comin' along with me," suggested Toby. "Dad'll be knowin'
what to do."

"But the boat has gone! How can I get home?" Charley almost sobbed,
quite beside himself with despair and terror.

"Don't be takin' on like that now!" Toby placed his hand soothingly upon
Charley's arm. "Dad says a man can get out of most fixes, and he keeps
his head and don't get scared. Dad knows. He's wonderful fine about
gettin' out of fixes. Dad'll know what to do. He'll be gettin' you out
of your fix easy as a swile[1] slips off a rock. You'll see!"

Helpless to do otherwise, Charley submitted, and Toby led him down to
the boat, and when Charley was seated astern, and Toby was pulling for
the huts, a half mile away, with the strong, sure stroke of an expert
boatman, Toby counselled:

"Don't be lettin' yourself get worked up with worry, now. Dad says
worry and frettin' never makes a bad job better."

"It's terrible! It's terrible!" exclaimed Charley in agony. "I've been
left behind! I've no place to go, and I'll starve and freeze!"

"'Tisn't so bad, now," Toby argued. "You be safe and sound and well.
Maybe the mail boat folk'll be missin' you and come back."

"Do you think they will?" asked Charley, ready to grasp at a straw of
hope.

"I'm not knowin'," answered Toby cautiously, "but leastways you'll be
safe enough."

Toby's assurance gave little comfort to Charley. The snow was now
falling so heavily that he could scarcely see the huts perched upon the
rocky hillside, and there was no other indication of human life in the
great wide, bleak wilderness that surrounded them. The bare rocks, the
falling snow, and the sound of the sea beating upon the cliffs beyond
Pinch-In Tickle filled his heart with hopelessness and helplessness. As
uncomfortable and unhappy as he had been upon the ship, he now thought
of it as a haven of refuge and luxury. If it would only come back for
him! Why had he gone ashore! He had dreamed of adventures, but never an
adventure like this.

"Here's the landin'."

Toby had drawn the boat alongside a great flat