“We’ll not be hard up for reading, at any rate,” remarked Eric, laughing joyously. “Food for the mind as well as food for the body, eh?”
“Yes,” said Fritz; “plenty of both.”
“But, how on earth shall we ever be able to get through all this lot of grub?”
“Ah, we won’t find it a bit too much,” said Fritz.
“What, for only us two, brother?” exclaimed Eric in astonishment.
“You forget it has got to last us more than a year, for certain; while, should the Pilot’s Bride not visit us again next autumn, it will be all we may have to depend on for twice that length of time.”
“Oh, I forgot that.”
“If you could see the pile of rations which one regiment alone of men manages to consume in a week, the same as I have, Eric, you would not wonder so much at the amount of our supplies.”
“But think, brother, a regiment is very different to two fellows like us!”
“Just calculate, laddie,” answered the other, “the food so many men would require for only one day; and then for us two, say, for seven hundred days—where’s the difference?”