"It is not open!" answered Godfrey, who dared not yet tell him anything of the situation. "And the post?" "It is shut! But let us have something to eat!--I am dying with hunger! We can talk presently." And this morning Godfrey and his companion had again to content themselves with a too meagre repast of raw eggs and shell-fish. "Wholesome diet!" repeated Godfrey to Tartlet, who was hardly of that opinion and picked his food with considerable care. CHAPTER XI. IN WHICH THE QUESTION OF LODGING IS SOLVED AS WELL AS IT COULD BE. The day was already far advanced. Godfrey resolved to defer till the morrow the task of proceeding to a new abode. But to the pressing questions which the professor propounded on the results of his exploration he ended by replying that it was an island, Phina Island, on which they both had been cast, and that they must think of the means of living before dreaming of the means of departing. "An island!" exclaimed Tartlet. "Yes! It is an island!" "Which the sea surrounds?" "Naturally." "But what is it?" "I have told you, Phina Island, and you understand why I gave it that name." "No, I do not understand!" answered Tartlet, making a grimace; "and I don't see the resemblance! Miss Phina is surrounded by land, not water!" After this melancholy reflection, he prepared to pass the night with as little discomfort as possible. Godfrey went off to the reef to get a new stock of eggs and mollusks, with which he had to be contented, and then, tired out, he came back to the tree and soon fell asleep, while Tartlet, whose philosophy would not allow him to accept such a state of affairs, gave himself over to the bitterest meditations. On the morrow, the 28th of June, they were both afoot before the cock had interrupted their slumbers. To begin with, a hasty breakfast, the same as the day before. Only water from a little brook was advantageously replaced by a little milk given by one of the goats. Ah! worthy Tartlet! Where were the "mint julep," the "port wine sangaree," the "sherry cobbler," the "sherry cocktail," which he hardly drank, but which were served him at all hours in the bars and taverns of San Francisco? How he envied the poultry, the agouties, and the sheep, who cheerfully quenched their thirst without the addition of such saccharine or alcoholic mixtures to their water from the stream! To these animals no fire was necessary to cook their food; roots and herbs and seeds sufficed, and their breakfast was always served to the minute on their tablecloth of green. "Let us make a start," said Godfrey.