Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/108

92 excepting that of being shortly restored to all that is dear to me on earth. We are all in first-rate spirits, considering the misery with which we are surrounded. It is only this evening that we have got the boat ready for launching, and indeed there are several little preparations uncompleted yet.

Mr. Raynal is still making his hammer ring in the forge, although it is now half-past one o'clock in the morning. He is just finishing his last job, and I have snatched this opportunity for writing a little. Raynal has all along worked until eleven o'clock or midnight. There has been an amazing quantity of blacksmith work required for that small boat, which he has executed in a surprisingly skilful manner, and he has worked very hard. For my part, I have worked harder with my hands for the last nine months than ever I did in my whole previous lifetime; but I must not complain of this, for had I not done so I don't suppose I should now have been above the earth to write about it. I shall not be able to write much more, for my book is full, and I do not know whether I shall be able to muster up another scrap of paper or not.

In some part of my journal I have noticed an animal burrowing in the earth. About six weeks ago we caught a young cat of the common domestic species. We caught her in a trap in the forge, where she, no doubt, went to warm herself, after everything was quiet. We first kept her in a box for a few days, and then tied her up in the house near the fire, where in a few days she appeared to have become quite contented and reconciled to her lot. The strap about her neck by some means got broken, but still she remained about the house for some time, keeping under the floor in the daytime, and coming out in the evening; and she soon cleared the house of mice, with which we were dreadfully infested: but after a short time she was missing, and we saw nothing of her for some time, when she again made her appearance in the forge, where she continues to be a regular nocturnal visitor, and is quite