made the boys tired, and they were soon in a sound sleep, but my wife and I took it in turns to watch through the whole night long.
We were all out of our beds as soon as light was in the sky, and set to work to hoist up the planks that were to form the floor of our hut. These we laid down on the branch, with their ends made fast to a cross piece of wood that we had to fix to the trunk of the tree. Our nails were long, and we drove each one of them home, so that we had no cause to fear the strength of our work. Some parts were rough, but we took care to make our floor quite smooth, and put up a large sail cloth to serve for a roof till we had time to make one of wood. By the time we had done this the day was far spent, and we were all glad to lay by our tools and rest our limbs. That night we lit our fires round the tree, tied the dogs to the roots, and went to sleep out of harm's way for the first time since we left the ship. When the steps were drawn up we all felt that we were now safe at last, and that we had brought the toils of the day to a good end.
