“That’s got nothin’ to do wi’ the argiment,” returned Grummidge sternly, for his anxieties were too serious to permit of his indulging in levity at the time. “What we’ve got to do is to find meat, for them auks are nigh as dry as the fish. Meat, lad, meat, wi’ plenty o’ fat, that’s the question o’ the hour.”
“Yes, it’s our question, no doubt,” rejoined Stubbs.
He might as well have bestowed his bad pun on a rabbit, for Grummidge was essentially dense and sober-minded.
“But we’ve had a few rabbits of late, an’ ducks an’ partridges,” he added.
“Rabbits! ducks! partridges!” repeated his companion, with contempt. “How many of them delicacies have we had? That’s what I wants to know.”
“Not many, I admit for there’s none of us got much to boast of as shots.”
“Shots!” echoed Grummidge. “You’re right, Stubbs. Of all the blind bats and helpless boys with the bow, there’s not I believe, in the whole world such a lot as the popilation of Wagtail Bay. Why, there’s not two of ye who could hit the big shed at sixty paces, an’ all the fresh meat as you’ve brought in yet has bin the result o’ chance. Now look ’ee here, Stubbs, a notion has entered my head, an’ when a notion does that, I usually grab that notion an’ hold ’im a fast prisoner until I’ve made somethin’ useful an’ ship-shape of ’im. If it works properly we’ll soon have somethin’ better to eat than fish, an’ more substantial than rabbits, ducks, partridges, or auks.”
We may remark in passing that the animals which those wrecked sailors called rabbits were in reality hares. Moreover, the men took an easy, perhaps unscientific, method of classifying feathered game. Nearly everything with wings that dwelt chiefly on lake, river, or sea they called ducks, and all the feathered creatures of the forest they styled partridges. From this simple classification, however, were excepted swans, geese, eagles, and hawks.
“Well, Grummidge, what may be your notion?” asked Stubbs.
“My notion is—seals! For all our hard rowin’ and wastin’ of arrows we’ve failed to catch or kill a single seal, though there’s such swarms of ’em all about. Now this is a great misfortin’, for it’s well known that seals make first-rate beef—leastwise to them as ain’t partic’lar—so we’ll set about catchin’ of ’em at once.”