CHAPTER V.

WHEN I rose from my bed the next day, I said to my wife: "Does it not
seem, my dear, as if God had led us to this place, and that we should
do wrong to leave it?"

"What you say may be quite true, so far as it goes," she said; "but I
must tell you that the mid-day heat is more than we can bear, and that
if we stay here we may have to keep watch at night, for there are, no
doubt, wild beasts of some kind that will find us out; and we should
not trust too much to our dogs, who may lose their lives in a fight
with them."

"I dare say you are right," said I; "but I do not yet see how we can
cross the stream. We shall first have to build a bridge."

The boys were now all out of their beds; and while my wife went to milk
the cow and cook some food, I made my plans known to them. They were
all glad when they heard that we were to leave, and each said he, would
help to build the bridge.

The first thing to be done was to find some strong planks; and Fritz,
Ernest, and I went down to the shore, and got in the boat, which the
tide took down to the bay.

On a piece of land which lay to the left we could see some large dark
thing, round which flew a flock of sea gulls. We put up a sail and
caught a gust of wind which had sprung up, and this soon brought the
boat to the spot. We made no noise, but crept up the shore step by
step, and we got so near that Ernest brought down some of the birds