direction Halkett gave me, and which I continued to
repeat over and over to myself as I went along. This and watching my
shadow--the only one that touched the earth--were my occupations. It may
seem absurd, even to downright folly; but when from any change in the
direction of my course the shadow did not fall in front of me, where I
could mark it, my spirits fell, and my heavy heart grew heavier.

When, however, it did precede me, I was never wearied watching how
it dived down the little slopes, and rose again on the opposite bank,
bending with each swell of the ground. Even this was companionship,--its
very motion smacked of life.

At length I came upon a little pool of rain-water, and, although
far from clear, it reflected the bright blue sky and white clouds so
temptingly that I sat down beside it to make my breakfast. As I sat
thus, Hope was again with me, and I fancied how--in some long distant
time, when favored by fortune, and possessed of every worldly gift, with
rank, and riches, and honor--I should remember the hour when, a poor,
friendless outcast, I ate my lonely meal on Anticosti. I fancied even,
how friends would listen almost incredulously to the tale, and with what
traits of pity or of praise they would follow me in my story.

I felt I was not doomed to die in that dreary land, that my own courage
would sustain me; and, thus armed, I again set out.

Although I walked from daybreak to late evening, it was only a short
time before darkness closed in that I saw a bulky mass straight before
me, which I knew must be the log-house. I could scarcely drag my legs
along a few moments before; but now I broke into a run, and with many
a stumble, and more than one fall,--for I never turned my eyes from the
hut,--I at last reached a little cleared spot of ground, in the midst of
which stood the "Refuge-house."

What a moment of joy was that as, unable to move farther, I sat down
upon a little bench in front of the hut! All sense of my loneliness, all
memory of my desolation, was lost in an instant. There was my home; how
strange a word for that sad-looking hut of pine-logs, in a lone island,
uninhabited! No matter, it would be my shelter and my refuge till better
days came round; and with that stout resolve I entered the great roomy
apartment, which in the settling gloom of night seemed immense.

Striking a light, I proceeded to take a survey of my territory, which I
rejoiced to see contained a great metal stov