a strange figure running to meet them, and by gestures
and shouts pointing out the best place for landing. Alexander, with his
long beard, his tanned complexion, his goat-skin dress, had lost almost
all outward resemblance to a civilized man, and they wondered much who
this friendly and solitary savage might be.

But who can describe his joy when he heard once more the speech of his
own country, and looked on the faces of his kind. He welcomed his
visitors in the best English he could remember, for even his speech was
half forgotten, and led them to his hut to partake of the banquet he had
prepared.

Yet in the midst of all his joy he could hardly determine to leave his
beloved island, so accustomed had he grown to solitude, and to his wild,
uncontrolled life. At length the remembrance of his aged parents, and of
his friends at home, made him determine to ask a passage in the ship
which had touched on his island shore, and the captain, finding how much
he had learnt of seamanship and navigation, offered to rate him as mate.
And thus Juan Fernandez was left once more in utter solitude, and
Selkirk, gazing from the ship's deck, saw its green hills and pleasant
coasts disappear in the distance, as he left the island and all its sad,
its sacred, its happy memories forever. He soon grew tired of the
society of men, and when not busy about the ship, would always seek to
be alone, dreaming of the life which he had left. He found it hard, too,
to accustom himself to the salt meat and biscuits which were sailors'
fare, and to the dress and boots in which he must now appear. Soon every
other thought was lost in his longing desire to see once more his
parents and his home, for the shores of England were in sight. It was on
a Sunday morning that the wanderer entered once more his native village,
where all seemed quiet and unchanged. He did not turn his steps to his
father's cottage, for his parents, as he well knew, would be at the
kirk, and there would he look on their faces once more. Would they
recognize, he asked himself, in the strong and bearded man, the youth
who had left them years ago for the life of adventure which he loved
best? Would they know the fine gentleman in gold lace and embroidery to
be their son Alexander, their lost sailor lad. Pondering such thoughts
as these, he walked on almost unconsciously. How well he knew every step
of his way! In this farmhouse, his sister and her husband used to live;
there was the