Shipwrecked 



matically. At last I arrived at Matson's house 

 and knocked at the door ; a voice said, " Who's 

 there ? " On hearing who I was the good old 

 man jumped out of bed and, after helping me 

 out of my wet clothes, insisted on my getting 

 into his warm bed, whilst he busied himself in 

 making me some hot soup. He kept muttering 

 aloud between his questions and my answers as 

 to the disaster, that he knew those silly some- 

 things would do it. I was anxious for my skins 

 and trophies, to say nothing of my gun and 

 rifle, which were in the hold of the schooner. 

 " Now don't you worrit over anything," the old 

 man said ; " me and the boys will fix things up 

 to-morrow." 



I had bought a nice lot of prime fur just 

 before leaving Kenai, which consisted of three 

 grey wolves' skins, eighteen magnificent beaver 

 pelts, six marten skins, and two beautiful 

 silver fox skins ; and these, together with my 

 own skins, would, I knew, suffer dreadfully by 

 contact with the salt water. However, it was 

 no use worrying, so being dead-beat I soon 

 dropped off to sleep, whilst my kind host slept 

 on the floor. Next morning I had to stay in 

 bed until my clothes were dried out. In the 

 meanwhile Matson went up to the Indian village 

 and collected all the natives he could get 

 hold of. He also pressed into his service six 

 white men who were waiting for the s.s. Bertha 



279 



