The flesh of such as were edible was cured and stored, as they foresaw the day when many people might be in Fort Refuge and the food would be needed.

The skins also were dressed and were put upon the floor or hung upon the walls.

The young men working hard were happy nevertheless, as they were continually learning new arts.

And the life was healthy to an extraordinary degree.

All the wounded were as whole as before, and everybody acquired new and stronger muscles.
Their content would have been yet greater in degree had they been able to learn what was going on outside, in that vast world where France and Britain and their colonies contended so fiercely for the mastery.