ed. Half of it presented the soft
character that marked the bay in general; but a portion of it was rocky,
though streaked with vegetation, and this part was intersected by narrow
clefts, into which, in some rare tempests and high tides combined,
tongues of the sea had entered, licking the sides of the gullies smooth;
and these occasional visits were marked by the sand and broken shells and
other _debris_ the tempestuous and encroaching sea had left behind.

The true high-water mark was several feet lower than these _debris,_ and
was clearly marked. On the land above the cliffs he found a tangled
jungle of tropical shrubs, into which he did not penetrate, but skirted
it, and, walking eastward, came out upon a delicious down or grassy
slope, that faced the center of the bay. It was a gentleman's lawn of a
thousand acres, with an extremely gentle slope from the center of the
island down to the sea.

A river flowing from some distant source ran eastward through this down,
but at its verge, and almost encircled it. Hazel traversed the lawn until
this river, taking a sudden turn toward the sea, intercepted him at a
spot which he immediately fixed on as Helen Rolleston's future residence.

Four short, thick, umbrageous trees stood close to the stream on this
side, and on the eastern side was a grove of gigantic palm-trees, at
whose very ankles the river ran. Indeed, it had undermined one of these
palm-trees, and that giant at this moment lay all across the stream,
leaving a gap through which Hazel's eye could pierce to a great depth
among those grand columns; for they stood wide apart, and there was not a
vestige of brushwood, jungle, or even grass below their enormous crowns.
He christened the place St. Helen's on the spot.

He now dipped his baler into the stream and found it pure and tolerably
cool.

He followed the bend of the stream; it evaded the slope and took him by
its own milder descent to the sands. Over these it flowed smooth as glass
into the sea.

Hazel ran to Welch to tell him all he had discovered, and to give him his
first water from the island.

He found a roan-colored pigeon, with a purplish neck, perched on the sick
man's foot. The bird shone like a rainbow, and cocked a saucy eye at
Hazel, and flew up into the air a few yards, but it soon appeared that
fear had little to do with this movement; for, after an airy circle or
two, he fanned Hazel's cheek with his fast-flapping wings, and lighted on
th