Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Winter Shelter

Charman Island enters winter as early as early May.But how long is this winter time?If this place is located at the same latitude as New Zealand, the winter time will be as long as 5 months.So Gordon had to prepare for the rigors of the long, harsh winter. The young American guy made a detailed record of the observed climate conditions.He found that winter here starts in May, which is two months earlier than in July in other places, while winter in the northern hemisphere usually starts in the first month.The winter here will last for more than two months, even until mid-September.It was the vernal equinox, and since it was the rainy season, the winter would seem even longer.Before the first ten days of October, this group of little colonists will probably have to stay in the French den obediently.Only after this time can they hunt and fish near Charman Island or out.So he had to draw up a daily work plan to organize life in the cave.

First, he decided to abolish the system that had been practiced at Charmain School for younger students to serve older students.He has to use all his energy to convince the children to accept his idea.They are adults and should learn to act like adults.The system of juniors serving seniors can no longer be practiced in French dens.The little ones should not be the prey of the older ones. They also stock several books on popular science and travel.In this way, to a certain extent, older children can still continue their studies.The difficulty of living in the environment, the difficulty of finding daily supplies, and the ability to adapt and judge in times of crisis, all these will teach children to take life seriously.Naturally, the older children have the inescapable responsibility to educate the younger and ignorant ones.

Because the children are too young, in order not to overwork them, the older children use every available opportunity to exercise their physical strength and cultivate their temperament.Whenever the weather permits, they send the little ones out in comfortable clothes, to play in the fresh air, or to do some labor that they can afford.In short, the whole program was drafted according to the four principles of British educational thought. "If you are afraid of doing something, the more daring you have to do it." "Do your best in everything you do." "Never be afraid of fatigue, everything you do is beneficial."

"Physical health means mental health." These were unanimously approved by the children after discussion at the meeting. They study in the hall for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon every day.Bryant, Donagan, Cross, and Baxter, who are in sixth grade, and Wilcox and Webb, who are in fourth grade, take turns teaching the first, second, and third graders.They taught math, geography, history, and what they themselves learned from school library books.This will also help them review the past and learn the new.Every Sunday and Thursday, they will debate some popular science, history or some real events, requiring everyone to actively participate and express their opinions.

As the leader of the colony, Gordon will urge everyone to complete the plan faithfully, unless something unexpected happens. At first, they also made some arrangements for the passage of time.They still kept the astronomical almanac brought over from the sailboat, but every day passed, they had to be marked in time.They also have watches, but these watches have to be wound every day to keep the time accurate.This task was entrusted to two older children.Wilcox was tasked with winding the watches each day; Baxter was assigned to mark the almanac; and Webb was assigned to record the marks on the barometer and thermometer each day.

Then it occurred to them to start a diary, recording everything that happened during their time on Charman Island.Baxter volunteered for the task.As a result of his efforts, a periodical, The French Cave, was created, recording the people and events that took place on Charman Island. Laundry is also a big event that cannot be delayed.Fortunately they had no shortage of soap to use.Children always get their clothes dirty when they play in the fields or catch fish in the river.No matter how Gordon warned, how much he complained, and sometimes even threatened to punish those who soiled the clothes, the children always made a mess of their clothes.Although they had someone who could do the laundry, and Moko was good at it, he didn't have the time or energy to do it, so the older kids had to help him sometimes.

The first day after reaching this plan is Sunday.They live like ordinary Americans and British people.In the morning, the children will take a walk along the family lake.Because the weather is cold, after a few hours of activities outside, they will happily return to the warm hall, waiting to go to the pantry to enjoy hot meals carefully prepared by the clever French culinary masters.In the evening, they can enjoy an accordion concert played by Garnett.Although he sang somewhat out of tune, he sang pure Anglo-Saxon folk songs.Jack is the only one who has a slight musical talent, but he is in a bad mood for some reason, and has no intention of participating in the activities of his partners at all.Even if someone begged him to sing, he would not sing.

At the beginning of each day's work, what Sauvis called "Dear Gordon" always gave a short speech.At 10 o'clock in the evening, the children will pray together, which is the end of the day.Then they went to bed and left Xiaomi to watch the night.The children have fully trusted Mimi to deal with any suspicious things. In June, the weather turns even colder.Webb reported that the barometer was set at exactly 27 inches, while the thermometer read minus 20 to minus 18 degrees.As long as the south wind changes to the southwest, the temperature will rise a little, and the French cave will be covered with a thick layer of snow.But the snow is not annoying, because the children have a chance to have a snowball fight.A few of the kids suffered from snowball fights, especially Jack.Once, as he was standing watching, a cloud of snow thrown by Cross hit him just right, and he cried out in pain.

"I didn't mean to," Cross said, defending his mistake. "You probably didn't mean it," Bryant said, checking his brother's eyes, "but you shouldn't hit it so hard." "Well, who told him to get in the way here?" Cross said. "Isn't he playing?" "What's all the fuss about just turning your eyes blue?" Donagan exclaimed. "Maybe it wasn't a serious injury," Bryant added, seeing Donagan intervene, "but I want Cross to stop doing this." Donagan sneered, "Since Cross didn't mean it, how can he guarantee it?"

"It's none of your business, Donagan!" Bryant said. "This is between me and Cross." "Bryant, if you want to do this, I will take care of this matter!" Donagan replied. "Since you want to take care of it, you can take care of it!" Bryant put his hands on his hips unwilling to show weakness. At this moment, Gordon came over and stopped the quarrel that was about to be fist-fighting in time. After Gordon's verdict, Donagan admitted his mistake, and returned to the French den unhappy.What is worrying is, will there be similar quarrels that turn into fights in the future?

The heavy snow continued for two days.In order to make the little friends happy, Sauvis and Garnett built a huge snowman with a huge head and a high nose.Although Tori and Costa dared to throw snowballs at the snowman during the day, at night the darkness made the snowman appear larger, and they trembled at the sight of the snowman. "Oh, you two are cowards!" Evanson and Jenkins were also very scared in their hearts, but they put on a very brave appearance. By the end of June, the child has to give up these entertainments.Because the snow piled up three or four feet deep, they couldn't get out of the hole at all.If one ventured a few hundred yards out of the Frenchman's Cave, there was a good chance that one would never return. The little colonists remained obediently inside the cave for two weeks until July 9th.But their work and study have not been affected at all.On the contrary, daily work schedules are more strictly enforced.The twice-weekly debates are held regularly and the children are happy to participate.Donagan was an eloquent eloquent because of his extensive reading, and he always had the upper hand in debates.But for some reason, his personality is arrogant, which tarnishes his image of being smart and capable. Although they stayed in the hall all day and all night, thanks to the aisle for ventilation, the children's bodies have not yet experienced any problems.This is a very critical question.If someone fell ill, they wouldn't see a doctor and prescribe medicine.Fortunately, they only suffer from mild colds or sore throats occasionally, and they will be fine after drinking some hot water or resting for a few days. They also encountered another puzzle that needed to be solved.It turned out that the fresh water they drank was brought in from the river after the seawater ebbed.Only then does the water contain no salt from seawater.But now the entire river is frozen, and the seawater in the river cannot be removed.Gordon consulted with his "civil engineer" Baxter what would be the best course of action.After some serious consideration, Baxter proposed laying a water main a few feet below the river.In this way, the water under the river will not freeze and can flow directly into the storage room through the water pipe.Luckily Baxter kept the long lead pipe from the sailboat lavatory.In this way, after some efforts, the fresh water in the river was finally introduced into the storage room.As for the lighting in the cave, they still had plenty of lamp oil, but after this winter, they might only be able to light candles made of fat oil, which Moko carefully preserved. There are also great difficulties in solving the problem of feeding small colonies.Because at this time, hunters cannot go out to hunt as usual, and fishermen cannot go out to fish as usual.A few hungry beasts came out to the playground for food, but they were just jackals, and Donagan and Cross scared them away with a single shot.One day a pack of nearly twenty jackals came out, and the children had to barricade the hall and store-room doors.After all, the children were still a little afraid of the attack of these hungry beasts.Fortunately, Xiao Mi sent out the alarm in time, they took precautions, and the beast did not forcefully rush into the Frenchman's den. In this unfavorable situation, Moko had to use the provisions brought from the sailboat, which could not be used unless it was absolutely necessary.This is what they have already negotiated and reached a consensus on.Gordon strongly opposed the use of these stocks of food.He couldn't bear to see such a small amount of food in stock dwindling day by day.Although they still stocked a good deal of wild duck and bustard meat, which was parboiled and stored in sealed barrels.Moko ate some every day, plus some salmon in brine.But you must know that there are 15 mouths in the French cave to eat, and they are all boys aged 8 to 14, and all of them have strong appetites. But it doesn't mean that they can't eat fresh meat in winter.Wilcox is good at setting all kinds of traps.He managed to set several "4" traps on the river bank.With the help of his friends, he used a few long wooden sticks to prop up several nets, and he was often able to live with the birds flying over from the southern wilderness.Although there are not many captive birds, it is enough for them to improve their daily life. The most disturbing thing is the ostrich.Although Sovis was responsible for domesticating it, she had to admit that the domestication work hadn't improved at all. "It will make a good horse!" Although Sauvis didn't see any hope that he could ride on the back of an ostrich, he always repeated this sentence. Because ostriches don't eat meat, Sovis had to go out every day to find some grass and tree stems in the two or three feet of snow.He will do anything to fatten up his beloved pet. If the ostrich had lost weight during the long winter, it would be no wonder that Sovis was a conscientious breeder.We can only hope that the ostrich will return to its normal fat appearance in spring. On July 9, when Bryant went out early in the morning, he found that the wind direction suddenly changed to southerly again. The air was so cold that Bryant had to go back into the cave and tell Gordon about the temperature change. "That's what worries me," Gordon replied. "It wouldn't be surprising if we only had two or three months of winter." "But now it turns out," Bryant offered, "that our sailboat has drifted farther south than we thought!" "I bet," Gordon said, "our atlases don't show such an island in the waters off Antarctica at all." "It's such a puzzling thing. I don't know where we're going to go if we leave Charman Island?" "Leaving Charman Island?" Gordon said. "Have you been thinking about it?" "I've been thinking," Bryant said, "if we could build a small boat to sail the oceans, I wouldn't hesitate to take a voyage and see." "Great idea!" Gordon exclaimed, "but it's too early. Wait and see! Let's get our colony in order first." "What?" Bryant said. "Have you forgotten that we are children away from our parents?" "Of course not, of course not," Gordon admits, "but we're doing fine right now! We're going to be here for a while, and I wonder what we're missing right now?" "Everything is missing, Gordon," said Bryant, apparently not wanting to talk about the subject any longer. "We're almost out of dry wood." "Oh, that's all right, there's plenty of dry wood in the woods on the island." "But we have to gather some dry wood now, the old ones are almost gone." "I'll find out today. What's the temperature today?" The temperature in the storage room is only 41 degrees, and that is because of the stove burning in the room.As long as the thermometer is placed outside the cave, the temperature will immediately drop below zero. It's been very cold, and if the next few weeks remain sunny and dry, the cold will intensify.Despite the roaring fires in the hall and kitchen, they felt distinctly that the temperature in the Frenchman's cave had dropped. At about 9 o'clock, they finished their breakfast and decided to go to the trap woods and pick up some dry firewood. If there is no wind, no matter how low the temperature is, people will not get frostbite or freeze to death.But if the temperature is very low, people will frostbite their fingers and face in the cold wind, and may even freeze to death.Thankfully, the wind was light and cloudless on this day, and the air seemed to freeze.Had it been the night before, their legs would have sunk into deep, soft snow, but now the ground was as hard as steel.In order not to fall, the children walked carefully, as if walking on the frozen family lake and the Zeeland River.With a few pairs of snowshoes like the ones worn in the polar regions, and a sled pulled by dogs or reindeer, the kids could spend hours scouring the lake from north to south. But this kind of expedition cannot be done today. The problem they urgently need to solve is to go to the neighboring mountains to collect some dry firewood.Of course, if the children had to carry it all on their shoulders and hands, they wouldn't be able to collect a lot of firewood.So Moko had a great idea.The big table in the store-room is so solidly built, a full twelve feet long and four wide, that if it were turned upside down it would be just enough to be used as a sled?Why?Because the children only need to tie the four legs of the table with thick ropes, and then they can pull them to trap the woods. The little boys skipped ahead, their cheeks and noses red from the cold.Little Mi walked in the front and led the way.Occasionally they would argue over who would pull the table, but it was purely for fun.Some people even fell a few times, but it didn't hurt at all.The children's shouts echoed for a long time in the cold and dry air.The whole small colony is immersed in a joyful and peaceful atmosphere. As far as the eye could see, there was a vast expanse of whiteness from the Oakland Hills to the family lake.All the branches near and far are dotted with shiny crystals, making people feel as if they have entered a fairyland.Flocks of birds flew over the lake from time to time.Donagan and Cross never forgot to bring their guns.It was also a sensible conservation measure, as they found some suspicious game tracks in the snow that could not have been left by jackals, cougars, or leopards. "These footprints may have been left by an animal called a feral cat," Gordon suggested. "Hmm!" Costa shrugged and said, "As you said, it was left by the wild cat?" "Tigers have become cats too," Jenkins pointed out. Costa asked, "I heard that this kind of wild cat can eat people, is it true, Sauvis?" "It's true," Sauvis said, "a stray cat catches a child as easily as a mouse." Costa was taken aback by this statement. They covered the half mile from Frenchman's Hole to Trap Wood in no time.The boys immediately set to work chopping wood.They only use axes to cut down the big trees, and then cut off the branches, which is convenient for binding the branches and burning them later.But large logs can also be put into the fire to burn.They filled their table sledges to the brim, but they could easily pull them back.Before noon, they made two trips. After lunch, they continued working until 4 p.m., when it was almost dark.Since doing this kind of work is very tiring, in order to prevent everyone from being too tired, Gordon ordered the children to rest from work and prepare to continue working the next day.The children had to obey Gordon's orders. Back at the Frenchman's Den the boys had to saw off the big logs, chop them up, and stack them again, till they went to bed. In this way, the work of chopping wood continued for six days.They fell enough firewood to burn for weeks.Of course, so much firewood cannot be piled up in the storage room.For safety reasons, the children stacked firewood against the cliff outside the cave gate. According to the almanac, July 15th is St. Swithin's Day, a British solar term somewhat similar to the French St. Medusa's Day. "So," Bryant said, "is it going to rain 40 days in a row from the day it rains?" "Well," Sauvis said, "what does it matter? It's winter anyway. What if it's summer?" In fact, people living in the southern hemisphere of the earth do not have to worry about the adverse effects of these two solar terms.This solar term will only bring wet and rainy weather in the northern hemisphere. Although there is no continuous rain, the southeasterly wind is now blowing again.It became so cold that Gordon would not let any of the little children step out of the hole. By the first week of August, the temperature dropped to minus 14 degrees.As long as you blow out a breath outside the cave, the airflow will quickly solidify and turn into snowflakes.As long as the hand touches the iron plate, it will definitely feel burning pain like a fire.The boys had to do everything they could to maintain the proper temperature inside the cave. The next two weeks are the hardest.Since they couldn't go out for activities, everyone was bored in the cave.Bryant looked anxiously at the pale faces of the children. It turned out that the rosiness on their faces had long since disappeared.Fortunately, hot water can often be drunk in the cave. Except for a few people suffering from mild colds or bronchitis, the children finally got through the difficulties safely. On August 16, the weather changed again, the wind direction turned to westerly, and the temperature rose to 10 degrees.If the airflow is stable, the children can finally come out and move around. Donagan, Bryant, Sauvis, Wilcox, and Baxter decided to take a trip to Galleon Bay.As long as they set out early, they could get back to the French Cave before dark. They wanted to see if any amphibians they had seen before visited the beach where the sailboat ran aground.In addition, they wanted to replace the flag, because the original flag was afraid that there were only some rags left in the wind and rain.According to Bryant's proposal, they also decided to nail a map marking the location of the French cave on the mainmast used as a flagpole. Maybe when someone sails past here, as long as they see the flag, they will pull the ship to the shore. . Gordon also agreed to the event, only emphasizing that they had to be back before dark.By the 19th, the children were off before dawn.There was no cloud in the sky, and the afterglow of the moon shone faintly on the land. Because they had rested for a long time, the short 6-mile journey was not difficult for them at all. The journey will soon be over.They didn't have to detour because the swamp was frozen.By 9 o'clock, Donagan and his friends arrived at Sailboat Beach. "Look, there's a lot of birds there," Wilcox said, pointing to the reef.Dozens of birds are inhabiting there.These birds are a bit like wild ducks, with flat and long beaks like mussels, and they make harsh sounds, as if to vent their dissatisfaction. "Those are penguins," Baxter said. "It's not worth our while to shoot them." Because the penguin's feet grow far behind them, these clumsy creatures can only stand upright.Even if someone chases them with a stick, they cannot escape.Donagan even wanted to fight the penguins, but thanks to Bryant's intervention, the penguins were saved from massacre. While killing penguins isn't much use, they can still kill other animals for the oil they use to light up the next winter.Such animals include seals, especially those with horns on their heads.They often rest on reefs, sometimes even covered in snow.But if you want to kill these seals, you must first cut off their retreat, because whenever Bryant and his companions approached the seals, they would make various strange gestures and disappear into the sea.If you want to kill them, obviously you can only wait for the next time. After eating what little dry food they had brought, the children set out to explore the whole bay.There is a vast expanse of whiteness from the Xilan River to Mihaidian.With the exception of penguins, seabirds, petrels and gulls, all birds appear to be flying inland from the coast in search of food. The snow on the beach was two or three feet deep, and the wreck of the original sailing ship had long been buried by snow.Algae growing around the reef indicated that the equinox tides were not rising at all. Looking around, there is still nothing to see on the sea.Bryant hadn't known what was happening on the other side of the sea for more than three months, and he had been longing to see New Zealand, hundreds of miles away, again. Baxter was busy hoisting the flag he had brought up, and nailed to the flagpole a map showing that it was only 6 miles from the Frenchman's Cave.Around 1:00 p.m., they began to set off for their return. On the way back, Donagan shot a pair of wrasses and a pair of pintails hopping across the river.It was almost dark when they returned to the cave near four o'clock.Knowing what had happened, Gordon agreed to hunt the seals when the weather improved. Winter is actually almost over.From late August to early September, the sea breeze regains its former strength.After several consecutive wind direction changes, the temperature suddenly rose.The snow began to melt, and there was a deafening sound of waves blowing on the lake.Some of the unmelted ice on the lake was washed into the river, piled up, blocked the channel, and was not washed away until September 19. The harsh winter is finally over.Thanks to the precautions taken by the boys, the little colonist barely made it through.The children are in good health one by one, and they persevere enthusiastically in their studies.Gordon hardly lost his temper with anyone. However, one day, Gordon had no choice but to punish Tori, because Tori's behavior was a bit too much, and he needed to be shown some seriousness, so as to educate others. On several occasions, the stubborn Tori refused to complete the assigned tasks.Gordon scolded him several times, but he ignored it.At last Gordon had to order that he be whipped. In this way, Thone was punished by Wilcox with birch sticks.Wilcox was the chosen executioner.This trick really prevented similar incidents of disobedience from happening again. By September 10th, six months had passed since the sailboat crashed into the rocks on Charman Island and was wrecked.