and fell asleep to the
sound of the wind buffeting in the cliff, and the fall of great waves on
the sea beaches.

Now I might make a book of all the things that David saw and did on the
islands, but they were mostly simple and humble things. He fared very
hard, but though he often wondered how he would find food for the next
day, it always came to him; and he kept his health in a way which seemed
to him to be marvellous; indeed he seemed to himself to be both stronger
in body and lighter in spirit than he had even been before. He both saw
and heard things that he could not explain. There were sounds the nature
of which he could not divine; on certain days there was a far-off
booming, even when the waves seemed still; at times, too, there was a
low musical note in the air, like the throbbing of a tense string of
metal; once or twice he heard a sound like soft singing, and wondered in
his heart what creature of the sea it might be that uttered it. On
stormy nights there were sad moans and cries, and he often thought that
there were strange and unseen creatures about him, who hid themselves
from sight, but whose voices he certainly heard; but he was never
afraid. One night he saw a very beautiful thing; it had been a still
day, but there was an anxious sound in the wind which he knew portended
a storm; he was strangely restless on such days, and woke many times in
the night: at last he could bear the silence of the cave no more, and
went out, descending swiftly by the rocks, the path over which he could
have now followed blindfold, down to the edge of the sea. Then he saw
that the waves that beat against the rock were all luminous, as though
lit with an inner light; suddenly, far below, how deep he knew not, he
saw a great shoal of fish, some of them very large, coming softly round
the rocks; the water, as it touched their blunt snouts, burst as it were
into soft flame, and showed every twinkle of their fins and every beat
of their tails. The shoal came swiftly round the rocks, swimming
intently, and it seemed as though there was no end of them. But at last
the crowd grew thinner and then ceased; but he could still see the water
rippling all radiant in the great sea-pools, showing the motion of broad
ribbons of seaweed that swayed to and fro, and lighting up odd horned
beasts that stirred upon the ledges. From that day forth he was often
filled with a silent wonder at all the sleepless life that moved beneath
the vast wat