kind of faint hope that a ship might come and take us off. But as
day after day passed, and neither savages nor ships appeared, we
gave up all hope of an early deliverance and set diligently to work
at our homestead.

During this time, however, we had not been altogether idle. We
made several experiments in cooking the cocoa-nut, most of which
did not improve it. Then we removed our goods, and took up our
abode in the cave, but found the change so bad that we returned
gladly to the bower. Besides this we bathed very frequently, and
talked a great deal; at least Jack and Peterkin did, - I listened.
Among other useful things, Jack, who was ever the most active and
diligent, converted about three inches of the hoop-iron into an
excellent knife. First he beat it quite flat with the axe. Then
he made a rude handle, and tied the hoop-iron to it with our piece
of whip-cord, and ground it to an edge on a piece of sand-stone.
When it was finished he used it to shape a better handle, to which
he fixed it with a strip of his cotton handkerchief; - in which
operation he had, as Peterkin pointed out, torn off one of Lord
Nelson's noses. However, the whip-cord, thus set free, was used by
Peterkin as a fishing line. He merely tied a piece of oyster to
the end of it. This the fish were allowed to swallow, and then
they were pulled quickly ashore. But as the line was very short
and we had no boat, the fish we caught were exceedingly small.

One day Peterkin came up from the beach, where he had been angling,
and said in a very cross tone, "I'll tell you what, Jack, I'm not
going to be humbugged with catching such contemptible things any
longer. I want you to swim out with me on your back, and let me
fish in deep water!"