This he saw came from Lubeck, although it had the Capetown post mark on it, and he glanced hurriedly over the front page and then at the end.
"All right at home, thank God!" he said aloud for Eric's benefit, the lad staring at his brother with eager eyes.

"And now, Captain Fuller, I'm ready to attend to you.

I shall be glad of a barrel of flour if you can spare it, but our other provisions can hold out.

Will you let a man or two come ashore to help get our freight aboard ?" "How much have you got to ship ?" asked the other.
"Thirty sealskins and twenty barrels of oil," replied Fritz at once; he and Eric had counted over their little store too often for him not to have their tally at his fingers' ends! "Come now," said Captain Fuller encouragingly.

"That's not bad work for a couple of novices as their first take here! Next year, you'll be able to fill up the _Pilot's Bride_, `I reckon,' as the old skipper would say." "Not quite that," replied Fritz, while he and Eric joined in the other's laugh; "still, I've no doubt we'll do better than this, for we'll take care to be beforehand with some folks!" The commander of the schooner looking puzzled by the latter part of this speech, Fritz proceeded to tell the young seaman all about Nat Slater and the Tristaners, anent which he became very indignant.
"I'll take care to call at the island and spoil the mean fellow's game for him, so that you shan't be troubled in the same way again!" cried their new friend, with much heartiness; "but, do, please, let these men go ashore with you now and fetch your produce at once, or else we'll have to be off without it! Here, Harris and Betkins," he sang out to two of the schooner's men, "go along with these gentlemen in their boat and bring off some cargo they'll point out to you!" "I don't think we can stow all in one boat," said Eric.
"Then, we must make two or three trips till we do," answered the other, equal to the occasion; and this procedure was adopted until all the brothers' sealskins and barrels of oils were shipped in the schooner.
The goods were consigned to Captain Brown, who had undertaken to dispose of all the produce of their expedition; and, when the freight was all shipped, the schooner, filling her sails, bore away from the island on her return trip to the Cape--not without a hearty farewell to Fritz and Eric from those on board.
This visit of the little craft cheered them up wonderfully, reconciling them cheerfully to another year's sojourn in their island home; for, had not the schooner brought them comfort and hope, and, above all else, what was to their longing hearts like manna to the Israelites in the wilderness, water to a dry ground, warmth to those shivering with cold-- in other words, "good news from home ?" Aye, that she had!.