"We shall never be able to build a boat now," she said presently, following out the natural train of her thought.
"I'm afraid not,"—with a doleful shake of the head. "Unless you have had any experience in such things."
"And so we may have to pass the rest of our lives here."
"It is better to consider how very much worse off we might be. For myself.... Besides, one never knows. Some unexpected chance may turn up."
"And you can bear to think of living on and on and on here till—the end?"
"I can bear to think of it very much better than I could a short time ago.... No cloud is black on both sides. Look on the bright side. Either of us might have been here alone. That would have been terrible——"
"I should have been dead."
"But instead of that we are two, we have comfortable shelter, the mighty blessing of fire, food enough to last us as long as we live——
"It sounds like that man in the Bible—the man who had his barns full, all he wanted to eat and drink, and so he made merry. And that night he died, if I remember rightly."
"We are not boasting. We arrived here lacking everything, and everything has been provided for us. We have reason to be grateful. Even Macro was necessary. He showed us how to turn the wreck-pile to account. If I had come ashore alone I doubt if I would ever have gone out to it again. It did not attract me.... And—he found you and brought you ashore."