This hope, vague as
it was, led me to store up such things as would bring a price, if we
had the chance to sell them; they might prove a source of wealth to us
if a ship came that way, or would at least help to pay the charge of a
cruise back to the land we came from.
It is but just to say that the boys did not share my hopes, nor did
they seem to wish that we should leave the place where they had been
brought up. It was their world, and the cave, to which we gave the name
Rock House, was more dear to them than any spot on the earth.
"Go back!" Fritz would say; "to leave our cave, that we dug with our
own hands; to part with our dear kind beasts and birds; to bid good-by
to our farms, and so much that is our own, and which no one in the
world wants. No, no! You can not wish us to leave such a spot."
My dear wife and I both felt that age would soon creep on us, and we
could not help some doubts as to the fate of our sons. Should we stay
and end our days here, some one of us would out-live the rest, and this
thought came oft to my mind, and brought with it a sense of dread I
could not get rid of. It made me pray to God that He would save us all
from so dire a fate as to die far from the sound of the voice of man,
with no one to hear our last words, or lay us in the earth when He
should call us to our rest.
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