and, with a loud bleat, she rushed up the rocks
after her companions.

I was consoled on the same evening by finding
an enormous shell which had been washed up
by the tide; this, along with two or three
smaller ones, I carried away, rejoicing in them
as vessels to hold water. Many and many a
time, however, I sat planning how to secure a
goat. For even one goat, as a companion,
would have been a great boon; but it was all
to no purpose; I never got one.

One bright moonlight night, I fell short of
wood. I had that day neglected getting it
(why, I forget now), so I had to turn out and
go up into the forest. The moon shone
beautifully, and the effects of light and shade
among the huge trees and gigantic creepers
were so fantastic and weird-like that I could not
help sitting down on a fallen tree, and, half-
frightened, yet utterly entranced, gazing on the
wonderful scene. As I sat, a loud shrill whistle
sounded close behind me. After a short time I
recovered sufficient self-possession to look
cautiously around, and saw a dark object moving.
I waited until it came into the full light of
the moon, when I saw what at first I took
for a quadruped. But it was a bird: a bird
with neither wings nor feathers, but a sort
of fur. It occurred to me that this must be
the "kiwi" I had heard much of from the
natives, called by the whites the apteryx. Apart
from its skin, which I wished to obtain, it was,
as I knew, exceedingly good eating. I looked
round for a stick or a stone, and at length got
hold of a stick without alarming the bird. I
started forward, and made an unsuccessful blow
at it. It ran very quickly; I managed, however,
to overtake it, when the brute threw itself on
its back and struck at me with its legs, ripped
up my trousers with a sharp hind claw, and tore
the skin of my leg most grievously. I was so
taken aback that the bird escaped. I had one
satisfaction, however; I had ascertained the
cause of the mysterious whistling, and thus set
all fears on that score at rest. In a day or two
I found apteryx eggs, which made a welcome
addition to my larder.

XI.

Four long weary months and two weeks had
passed. Three or four times in the day I
regularly went up the rocks, trying to sight a sail.
A long time had now elapsed since I saw the last,
and my hopes of ever seeing another became
every day fainter and fainter. At length, one
fine warm sunny day as I was lying on the
rock, looking every now and then seaward, I
descried a small speck far out to sea. At first
I thought my eyes deceived me; I rubbed them,
and looked again, and saw it still more
distinctly. I took a short walk in the forest, and,
coming back, found the object grown larger
and plainer. I could now discern glistening in
the light of the sun, the white sails of a vessel.
How my heart beat! Would she come near
enough for me to signalise her? I made ready a
fire, and, this time, gathered several green
branches to make a smoke with. Nearer and
nearer she came, until at length I made her out
to be a large schooner bound to the southward,
I supposed to Auckland. When she arrived (as
near as I could guess) about four miles from the
island, I lighted my fire, and heaped on it a
mass of green wood and damp moss, and watched
the smoke ascend in a large dense cloud. I
looked eagerly towards the schooner. She came
nearer and nearer. My heart palpitated. I
could distinctly hear and almost count its loud
and anxious throbs. "They see the smoke,
they see it!" I cried in ecstasy, as she
suddenly hauled up to the wind, and I heard her
sails flap sharply against her masts. In my
excitement I screamed until my throat was sore,
with the vain hope that the people on board
would hear my cries. Do they really see the
smoke? Will they lower a boat for me? The
few minutes of suspense during which she lay
aback, seemed hours. Hours? Years. "I
know they see the smoke, I know it!" I cried;
"how cruel not to hasten! Why do they not
lower a boat and pull off?" "They are going!"
I shrieked, in my agony, as I saw the vessel's
head slowly turn, and the sails again belly out
to the wind. "They are going! Oh, my God,
they are going! And leaving me here! Have
mercy, have mercy, and do not utterly forsake
me!" I cast myself with my face to the ground,
my eyes, hot, dry, and tearless. I dared not
look again. I felt as if I was going mad. At
length I got up, and took one last despairing
look at the receding ship now again diminished
to a small speck.

Silent and tearless, I sat for hours looking
down into the quiet deep blue waters. Here
and there, corals of all strange hues and many
forms branching out in different directions, with
bright coloured strange shaped fish gliding in
and out among the grotesque stony foliage,
and snow-white shells gleaming in the bright
clear water amongst the dark green weed, which
swayed idly backwards and forwards with the
plashings of the tide. All down there looked so
serene and peaceful that the thought crept
into my mind, "Would it not be better to
roll off this rock, and seek that resting-place?
It would be but one plunge, a very brief pang,
and then to sleep."

As I sat brooding over those wicked thoughts,
the words, "Call upon me in the day of trouble:
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me,"
came suddenly into my mind. I rushed down
to my hut, fell on my knees, and prayed God to
pity me and give me patience and submission.

XII.

Four more weary weeks passed without any
incident worth noting. Methodically I fished,
and gathered firewood, roamed through the
forest, and formed futile plans for catching goats.
In this manner another month passed. I had
now been five mouths alone on the island.

I had retired to bed one night as usual, when
I was startled by hearing something bump on
the beach. I jumped up, and listened. It