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Ere long, in a secluded place about a mile from the village, he saw an old ditcher tottering beneath the weight of a pick-axe, hoe and shovel, going to his work; the very picture of poverty, toil and distress. His clothes were tatters. Making up to this old man, Israel, after a word or two of salutation, offered to change clothes with him.
McGregor, to bring a wheelbarrow, pick-axe, and large shovel with them, since we should probably need the two latter to dig up the gold, while the wheelbarrow would be handy to carry it home. Everything was provided for in advance, and I felt confident of the success of our expedition. The night was clear and bright, and everything was favorable for our work.
The rules of war, as well as of humanity, demanded the honourable interment of the remains of this hero; and our captain, who was the very flower of chivalry, desired me to stick a white handkerchief on a pike, as a flag of truce, and bury the bodies, if the enemy would permit us I went out accordingly, with a spade and a pick-axe; but the tirailleurs on the hill began with their rifles, and wounded one of my men.
'Ah, dear Hans, said Elsie, 'if we marry each other and have a child, and he is big, and we perhaps send him here to draw something to drink, then the pick-axe which has been left up there might dash his brains out if it were to fall down, so have we not reason to weep? 'Come, said Hans, 'more understanding than that is not needed for my household, as you are such a clever Elsie, I will have you, and seized her hand, took her upstairs with him, and married her.
Then the woman said to the servant, "Just go down into the cellar and see where Elsie is." The maid went and found her sitting in front of the barrel, screaming loudly. "Elsie, why weepest thou?" asked the maid. "Ah," she answered, "have I not reason to weep? If I get Hans, and we have a child, and he grows big, and has to draw beer here, the pick-axe will perhaps fall on his head, and kill him."
He pondered what Leo had said, and soon afterwards went up to his son. "Benjy, my lad." "Yes, father," said the boy, dropping the head of his pick-axe on the ice, resting his hands on the haft, and looking up with a flushed countenance. "You should rest a bit now and then, Benjy. You'll knock yourself up if you don't." "Rest a bit, father!
"'We are going to have a new meeting-house here, was the reply, as the pick-axe tore away the side of a window-frame for emphasis." "The neighbor laughed, 'I guess you won't build it with that axe, he said." "'I confess I don't know just exactly how it is going to be done, said the preacher, as he hewed away at a piece of studding, 'but in some way it is going to be done."
A grim smile of satisfaction played for a minute on the Captain's rugged face, as he glanced at his son, who, a short distance ahead, was hacking at the ice with a pick-axe, in company with Alf and Butterface and the Eskimo men. "It'll do him good, lad," replied the Captain. "Hard work is just what my Benjy needs.
From a piece of ironwood, cut in the forest with great labour, I made a spade to dig with. Then I wanted a pick-axe, but for long I could not think how I was to get one. At length I made use of crowbars from the wreck. These I heated in the fire, and, little by little, shaped them till I made a pick-axe, proper enough, though heavy.
Just now the upper portion of the ice had been slightly softened, so that this last work did not entail much labour for pick-axe or spade. The course ran obliquely round the west side of the berg, so that the incline should not be too great at any point. With cables properly fixed, the launch, it seemed, might be effected without any mishap.
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