"Suppose we see just exactly what we have in the way of provisions," Katy suggested. "It won't take long to make out the list," she added, with a grim little smile.
They began at once, and the small housewife wrote down the list as fast as the stores were examined, guessing at the weights. There were found about eleven pounds of dried beef; bacon, one "side;" flour, about six pounds; corn-meal, ten pounds; beans, three pounds; coffee, two pounds; tea, a quarter of a pound; chocolate, half a cake; sugar, three pounds; small quantities of salt, pepper, soda, and so on; some crumbs of crackers and cookies in the bottom of a bag; a small piece of dried yeast; and a few swallows of the brandy that had been so useful at the time of Aleck's accident on the drifting ice.
They had nearly all the bedding, cooking utensils, and tools with which they had started three weeks before; but the oil for their lantern and their matches were nearly used up or lost; their powder was low, for part of it had been spoiled by water; their clothes were badly worn; and their only canvas, since the loss of their tent, was the small "spare piece."
"It's plain," said Aleck, as this overhauling was finished, "that we must put ourselves upon a regular allowance. The provisions won't last us a week unless we save them carefully."
"And it's plain that we must raise some more, so I reckon I'd better get to work at bird-traps."
"Yes, the sooner the better. As for me, I want to learn all I can about the island. There may be something of use to us at the other end, so I shall take a long walk, and see what I can find."
"Mayn't I go with you?" Jim asked, eagerly.
"Yes, Youngster, if you think you can stand it."
"No trouble about that," replied the little fellow, courageously. He had grown very manly during the past month.
The brothers started off, taking the gun with them, and saying that they would be back about three o'clock.