all the members of our party, to whose courage and independence of mind my story has borne witness, immediately and anxiously exerted themselves to relieve their hospitable relative of the burden of their support, and it was not long before they succeeded.
aleck and tug found profitable work to do. katy was eager to resume her studies, and therefore gladly accepted an invitation to stay with her aunt and help her in her sewing before and after school-hours. jim roomed with his brother, and went to school also, acting morning and evening as an office-boy for a lawyer to whom mr. porter had given him a letter of introduction.
to prepare themselves for these different stations used up their stock of money, but by close economy they came through without any debt—yes, even with some money left—just nineteen cents among them all! to this tug's pocket contributed nothing, but he was happy. "there's one great comfort in being 'dead broke,'" he told them. "you know precisely where you are, and that matters can get no worse. you are ready to begin all new again."
this sense of beginning anew was a tonic that strengthened the hearts of all of them; for each one knew that, although he had no money, his feet were planted firmly on the first round of the ladder which, if steadily climbed, might lead to prosperity.
with this satisfactory state of things the story might end, but twenty years and more have passed since that hard winter which made their journey to the island and escape from it possible; twenty years, in which no such hard winter has been seen again. aleck is manager and part owner of a manufactory of gas-fixtures and brass fittings in pittsburgh, and jim is his cashier. tug lives in cleveland, where he is busy, as an inventor, and expects some day to be made rich by his improvements in railway-brakes and in oil-pumping machinery; but nobody addresses him as "tug" except his wife (whom he calls katy) and his little boy, who never tires of hearing how papa and mamma and uncle aleck went adrift on an ice-floe in lake erie.
