The joy of the Crusoes now knew no bounds.  The dogs dashed about, Veevee barked “Wiff!” Briton barked “Wowff!” and Flossy frisked her tail and went off to fish.

The children now set out for a stroll, and saw many curious sights.  Close to the lake, in several places, the earth seemed to have been ripped open, and, looking down as they stood hand in hand on the edge, they seemed to be gazing right into the world’s dark depths.

Next day Tom took a long walk alone.  He went to the top of one of the highest hills, having left his sisters in charge of Frank and Briton, but taking Veevee and his rifle with him.

Pansy watched him go up and up the mountain, until he was lost to sight.

“Oh,” she cried, as she clapped her hands, “I know where Tom has gone!  He has just gone away to bring Uncle and ’Fessor Pete back again.”

Well, anyhow, Tom had a look at the sea.  It spread out as far as the eye could reach, and was covered everywhere with great snow-clad bergs of ice, except just close to the island, where it was clear, but black as ink.

It was nothing more than he expected, but somehow he wished it had been otherwise.

He marched down the other side of the hill for quite a mile, keeping a good look-out, however, lest some huge ice-bear should catch him unawares.

By and by he missed his little four-footed friend, and traced him by his footprints into a cave.

He called aloud, but received no answer.  The cave seemed to be a vast one, and he had to feel his way in the dark with his rifle, for fear of falling down some hole.

As he could hear nothing, he thought poor Veevee must be dead, and slowly and sadly turned back.

His foot kicked against something hard when he was near to the entrance, and, stooping down, he picked up what seemed to be a piece of white stone, and put it into the pocket of his jacket.

When he got back home at last, poor Pansy cried very much indeed at the loss of her pet.  But when, next morning, she found him curled up at her feet, she thought it must have been all a dream.

How the dog got back was never known, but it is possible he had been wandering all night in that cavern, deep down in the earth, and come out at the lake side of the range of hills.

* * * * *

It was quite a month before Tom crossed the hills again.  By this time spring had already come back to Fairy Island.  The buds were all out on the trees, and the green leaves on a thousand bushes.  Wild flowers were everywhere.  The birds, too, had returned, and the sea-gulls had taken up their abode on a great patch of level ground just on the other side of the lake.  When anyone went near to their nests, which were in thousands, and so close together that it was difficult to thread one’s way through them, the noise and screaming they made was deafening.

Now I don’t think that Tom and Frank were cruel, but they had to live, and those great green-speckled eggs made a splendid addition to the larder, so that, what with sunshine and better food, the girls soon got back all the colour they had lost during the long, long night of winter.