ned a large rent in the roof, through which he supposed the sounds
uttered by its inmate must be ascending. He was too far off to
distinguish the words; but that there were words uttered, and probably
as strange as the music itself, if music he could call it, he was very
certain. Now the strains rose to a high pitch, now they swelled, now
decreased into a low moan scarcely audible.

"Some poor mad creature," said the midshipman to himself. "I should
think nobody but a mad person would live in such a place as that; in
truth, if anybody had to live there, its solitude and its forlorn
condition would be enough to drive them out of their senses; it would
me, I know; only I should forthwith set to work to make it habitable.
To be sure, I shouldn't be worse off than Tom and I were when we were
cast away on that coral island in the Pacific, except that there we had
summer all the year round and abundance of food of one sort or another.
Here it must be terribly cold in winter, and as for food, a person would
soon starve if he were compelled to live only on what the hillside
produces." The young midshipman had got into the habit of talking to
himself, either during his night watches, or, it is just possible, while
at the mast-head, at which post of honour, in some ships, the young
gentlemen of his rank used to spend a considerable portion of their
existence.

The strange singing continued for some time. As he looked down from his
rocky height he saw a number of persons coming up the hill, apparently
from the village towards the hut. They appeared from their movements to
be children. They got close to the hut, and were hid from his sight.
Now they seemed to be running away--now they returned, leaping and
shouting, so that their shrill young voices reached to where he sat.
Suddenly he saw them all running down the hill, just as children run,
jumping and pushing against each other, and evidently in high glee. The
midshipman was considering that it was time for him to return to his inn
for the night, when a loud shriek, which came from the direction of the
hut, struck his ear, and he saw a bright light streaming through the
aperture in the roof. "Something is the matter," he exclaimed, as
jumping from his seat he ran down the mountain towards the hut: "the
cottage or its inmate is on fire; I must do my best to put out the
flame, at all events."

CHAPTER TWO.

An old woman was the sole occupant of that cheerless hut