After all, what difference does it make where you are?
A man has only a few years to live, and as long as he is contented, he is a fool to rebel." There may have been good philosophy in all this, and the captain did not attempt to gainsay it, but, all the same, it was hard for him to understand how any one could be so placed as to lose his yearning for his home and his native land.
It was several days afterward, when the captives had become somewhat accustomed to their surroundings, that Captain Gooding found he and his men were mixed in their reckoning.
"It is a question among us whether this is Thursday or Friday," said he, addressing Irons; "can you settle it for us ?" The Englishman looked at the captain in an odd way and replied: "I haven't the remotest idea of what day in the week it is, nor what is the month.

It seems four years ago that I was left here, but I am not sure of it.

Will you please give me the year and month ?" "This is April, 1889." The Englishman bent his head for a few minutes in deep thought.

He was recalling the past, with its singular incidents of his career.

When he looked up he said: "Yes; it is four years and more since I was abandoned, and if you stay that long you will be content to remain all your lives." The captain shook his head, and his eyes were dimmed as he replied: "I never could forget the loved ones at home, Irons; I would prefer death at once to a lingering imprisonment here." "Well, I am going to help you all to leave just as soon as it can be done.