“Well, no wonder we acted strangely,” continued Jerry. “We were just as weak as children. As soon as we lost all hope of getting on board the vessel, our strength went off just as suddenly as it came. We thought we’d give up then,—we didn’t care what became of us. So we floated along, just where the wind and current carried us, the rest of that day and night. But the next morning we discovered an island, five or six miles off, and that roused us up a little. We steered toward it, and concluded we’d land and see if we could find anything to eat.”
Here a sharp and sudden cry from the baby, in the bedroom, called Mrs. Preston away for a few minutes, and interrupted the narrative.
CHAPTER IV.
JERRY ENDS HIS STORY.
As soon as Mrs. Preston had quieted the baby to sleep, she returned, and Jerry resumed his story.
“We had got almost to the island, when I stopped,” he continued. “We found it was a pretty mean-looking place. It was rocky and barren, and there were but few trees, and not much of anything that was green. It was about two miles long, and half a mile wide. We landed without much trouble, and pulled our boat into a safe place on the beach, and then scattered about to see what we could find. We were glad enough to stand on solid ground once more, I can tell you, even if it was a desolate island. We had been cramped up in the boat so long that we had almost lost the use of our legs; but we contrived to get along, after a fashion. We divided into three parties, and explored the island thoroughly. But we didn’t find much to reward us. The only living things we saw were a few sea-birds, which had their nests in the rocks on the south side. We did not find anything fit to eat, except some muscles, and a kind of crab, and the eggs of the birds. The mate had pulled up some roots, that he thought we could eat rather than starve, but they didn’t have a very inviting taste, and none of us knew but they were poisonous. We didn’t find any fresh water on the island.
“After we had all come together again, we talked over matters, and decided to camp on the island awhile, and watch for a sail. We were afraid we were off the common track of vessels. But this seemed to be the best thing we could do. We were nearly out of water, and our bread was about all used up, and we certainly could not hold out but a few days longer if we pushed out to sea. But on the island, with our crabs and muscles and eggs, we should not need much water, and could probably catch what we needed when it rained.
“So that very afternoon we set about building a hut, for shelter. Luckily, we had a couple of axes, and we cut down a lot of bushes and trees, and before night we had quite a comfortable place to sleep in. It was a great treat to stretch ourselves out on the leaves and go to sleep. But first we kindled a fire, and cooked some beef and rice, and then if we didn’t eat, no matter.”
“How did you get your fire,—by rubbing two sticks together, as they say the savages do?” inquired Mrs. Preston.
“No; we very fortunately had some friction matches,” replied Jerry. “One of our men was a great smoker, and about the last thing he did before we abandoned the brig, was to get all of his tobacco, and his pipe, and a bunch of friction matches, and stow them away in his pocket. That was all he saved from the wreck, and it was lucky for us that he saved so much, for none of the rest of us thought of matches. Well, as I was going to say, we had a grand night’s rest. The next day it rained, and about all we did was to catch a little water. We caught a few crabs and roasted them, and they tasted very well. We tried the muscles, too, but nobody seemed to think much of them.