Two Sailor Lads by Gordon Stables

The next morning after breakfast Crusoe and Friday set to work in earnest. They very soon fashioned rude spades, and the tide being well back they commenced digging around the yacht. They dug and dug for hours. Then the Crusoe stood up to straighten out the "kinks from his backbone," as he himself phrased it. He scratched his head and smiled.

"Well, massa," said Friday, "you look very wise."

"We're a pair of fools though, Friday. Just listen, we're not doing a bit of good, we're only sinking the yacht lower, and as fast as we dig a canal down to the sea, as fast will the waves fill it up with sand."

Friday cried, "Hurrah! I am so glad! " Then he threw away his spade. Friday was not fond of work. You see, reader, theory is one thing, practice another.

They went away now to the hill again to rebuild the fire. It was quite out, and it was evident enough no one had seen it, or taken much notice of it at all events.

"I'm not sure, you know, that the fire will be of much use," said Fred, "but it is the correct thing to do, so we must do it for Toddie's sake. You and I, Frank, wouldn't mind this life for a month."

"Yes, for dear Toddie's sake, brother Fred."

There was something in the look that Frank gave his companion, more than in the words themselves, that went straight away to the heart of the fisher-boy, and on the impulse of the moment he stretched out his hand, and right heartily was it grasped.

"For life," said Frank.

"Yes," said Fred, "friends for life, Frank."

And so the strange compact was sealed.

A compact such as this men may smile at, but there is far more in the love that often exists 'twixt boy and boy, than many old heads could imagine or would be willing to believe.

As soon as dusk fell again the fire was once more lit, and once more the children danced and played in its rosy gleams, then, somewhat tired, though certainly not weary, they went home to read and talk around the camp fire, and then sleep again sealed the eyes of our shipwrecked mariners.

Another day and another went by just the same. The island seemed quite out of the course of steamboats, and fisher-boats never came near it.

But all through the glad sunlit hours they played at Crusoes, at pirates, and smugglers, and all sorts of children's heroes, and the day did not seem half long enough to contain all the jollity and joy that had to be crammed into it.

I'm not sure that the hour around the camp fire just before turning in was not the jolliest of all, for on board the little yacht they had all sorts of pleasant story books, and while Frank or Fred read aloud, the other two permitted their fancies to run riot in the pleasant land of imagination.

But why, they often wondered, did no boat answer their signal? It was kept up now even in the sunshine. It was as Fred reverently said, a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

Yet nevertheless they seemed forgotten of all the world.

But one evening, just at sunset, and before the night fire was lit, to their joy they saw a boat coming straight down under sail towards the island. It came near enough for them to see the fishermen's caps and faces.

They ran down to the cliff top, and the boys, took off their coats, shouting loudly.