were too precious to waste.

Another thing which these Crusoes had to be very careful to do was never
to let the fire go out. It was easily kept in by placing a kind of mossy
peat among the hot ashes and covering it quite over.

* * * * *

So they collected an immense quantity of nuts, and these were placed in
holes found in the rocks, and covered right up with the same sort of
cement as the squirrels used. The roots that served them instead of bread
every day, and which were cooked by placing them for a short time in the
hot ashes, they also collected and stored. So when the harvest was all
over, Tom told Frank and his sisters that they needn't be afraid to spend
their Christmas in this beautiful island.

"Oh, but, Tom," said Pansy, "we'll all be home long, long before
Christmas, won't we?"

Poor child! She was beginning to long for her mother's cosy cottage on
the cliff, and for the fires that in the long winter evenings always
burned so brightly in the parlour grate.

"Now, about light for the long Arctic winter night, which will soon be
here?"

This was the question that Tom put to Frank just after sunset one
beautiful evening as the snow on the tops of the highest mountains was
changed to a rose tint in the sun's parting rays.