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When they had got everything up to the cave, which took a long time, everybody had a good breakfast.  There was really enough food to last a week, and it was lucky there were several boxes of sardines, for Floss would take nothing else.

“It’s going to be a big, big picnic,” said Frank, and the girls began to laugh.  “We’re going to have lots of fun.”

Frank and Tom could climb like monkeys, and in about an hour’s time they had put all the food high up in a hole in the rock out of the reach of bears or foxes.

By twelve o’clock, when the sun was as high as it could get, the snow had disappeared, and once more there was a soft, warm breeze blowing, and beauty everywhere.

Two days flew by and nothing happened, only at night they could hear foxes barking in the distance.  They never attack people singly, as bears do, but they are dangerous in packs, as Tom one day found out to his cost.

The food was getting low, and Tom thought it was time to do something.  They had found strange fruits like strawberries growing, and also some sort of roots that tasted like nuts; but unless they could get some fish poor Flossy would die.

So Tom started off all alone on a voyage of discovery.  Frank stayed in the cave with the girls, and they promised to be very good.

The morning was very calm, and so still that Tom could hear Pansy calling to him “not to be long” when he was quite a mile up the mountain-side.  Why he took this course he could never tell, but, when he crossed the top, marvellous indeed was the view that lay before his eyes.

Uncle Staysail used to tell him that the natives of the north say there is an open sea somewhere near the Pole, with many islands in it, and trees, and flowers, and birds.

And now, behold! such a sea lay right down in the round valley yonder at his feet.  It was not really a sea, but a lovely round lake, and right in the middle was a large green island.

Tom rubbed his eyes and gazed and gazed, and then rubbed his eyes and gazed again.

“Was it all a dream?” he wondered.

No, there was no dream about it.  It took Tom some hours to explore this lake.  He walked round it and found that at the far side a ridge of rocks, very narrow, led right out to the island.  He crossed this natural bridge and found himself in a perfect paradise.  Flowers and fruit everywhere, and beautiful wild birds the like of which he had never seen before.  There were rabbits, too, and very tame they were, for they followed him about, and seemed to wonder what he was and where on earth he came from.

Tom knocked one on the head, though he was not cruel, and with this slung over his shoulder, and his pockets full of nuts, he started to walk back.

But I suppose that walking round in a circle had confused him.  Anyhow he walked miles out of his way, and lost himself.  He sat down on a big stone at last, and wondered what he should do.  He was tired and hungry, so he ate a handful of nuts.  And then he began to nod.