I had heard of jerking beef on the plains, and our seal-meat, cut in thin strips and hung in the smoke, cured excellently.
The second hut was easier to erect, for I built it against the first, and only three walls were required.

But it was work, hard work, all of it.
Maud and I worked from dawn till dark, to the limit of our strength, so that when night came we crawled stiffly to bed and slept the animal-like sleep exhaustion.

And yet Maud declared that she had never felt better or stronger in her life.

I knew this was true of myself, but hers was such a lily strength that I feared she would break down.

Often and often, her last-reserve force gone, I have seen her stretched flat on her back on the sand in the way she had of resting and recuperating.