a ship's biscuit in the course of
the next twenty-four hours, and taking two or three glasses of the wine,
mixed with water and sweetened with sugar. In the afternoon he
endeavoured to shave, but the first effort convinced him he was getting
well too fast.

It was thrice twenty-four hours after his first bath, before Mark
Woolston had sufficient strength to reach the galley and light a fire.
In this he then succeeded, and he treated himself to a cup of good warm
tea. He concocted some dishes of arrow-root and cocoa, too, in the
course of that and the next day, continuing his baths, and changing his
linen repeatedly. On the fifth day, he got off his beard, which was a
vast relief to him, and by the end of the week he actually crawled up on
the poop, where he could get a sight of his domains.

The Summit was fast getting to be really green in considerable patches,
for the whole rock was now covered with grass. Kitty was feeding quietly
enough on the hillside, the gentle creature having learned to pass the
curtain at the gate, and go up and down the ascents at pleasure. Mark
scarce dared to look for his hogs, but there they were rooting and
grunting about the Reef, actually fat and contented. He knew that this
foreboded evil to his garden, for the creatures must have died for want
of food during his illness, had not some such relief been found. As yet,
his strength would not allow him to go ashore, and he was obliged to
content himself with this distant view of his estate. The poultry
appeared to be well, and the invalid fancied he saw chickens running at
the side of one of the hens.

It was a week later before Mark ventured to go as far as the crater. On
entering it, he found that his conjectures concerning the garden were
true. Two-thirds of it had been dug over by the snouts of his pigs,
quite as effectually as he could have done it, in his vigour, with the
spade. Tops and roots had been demolished alike, and about as much
wasted as had been consumed, Kitty was found, _flagrante delictu_,
nibbling at the beans, which, by this time, were dead ripe. The peas,
and beans, and Indian corn had made good picking for the poultry; and
everything possessing life had actually been living in abundance, while
the sick man had lain unconscious of even his own, existence, in a state
as near death as life.

Mark found his awning standing, and was glad to rest an hour or two in
his hammock, after looking at the garden. While there