"We must make it habitable first. It is as empty as a drum, you know."
"All the better, since we are overcrowded here with that man. It is to get away from unpleasantness that we go."
"We shall need fire,—that means sand for a hearth; and wood—we have heaps here; and cooking things—we will take our fair share, and our blankets. Everything else I can get out yonder."
"Allons! Let us go at once and get them."
He looked carefully round the horizon. "The weather will hold for a day or two still, I think. Today we had better lay our foundations—sand, wood and so on. Then tomorrow we will go out to the pile and take our cargo straight to the other ship."
"What do we do first?" she asked, abrim with excitement.
"We will take a load of wood across at once and then go for sand. We will leave the cabin open to air it and light a fire."
She was as eager as a child going to a new house, and when presently he helped her up over the side of the other schooner, she tripped to and fro delightedly, and could hardly wait till he forced back the rusty bolts of the cabin hatch with a piece of wood, so impatient was she to inspect the new home.
"I like it better than the other," she said, as they stood in the little cabin.
"Why? It seems to me just about the same."