t
the inside of the fish, and fed the birds, who were crowding round me.

The woman washed her face and hands, braided up her hair, and then sat
down on the rock. In the mean time, I had lighted my fagot, cleaned the
fish, and waited till the wood was burnt to ashes before I put the fish
on the fire. Having then nothing to do, I thought that reading would
amuse the woman, and I went in for the Bible.

"Shall I read to you?" said I.

"Yes," replied she with some astonishment in her looks.

I read to her the history of Joseph and his brethren, which was my
favourite story in the Bible.

"Who taught you to read?" said she, as I shut the book, and put the fish
on the embers.

"Jackson," said I.

"He was a good man, was he not?" replied she.

I shook my head. "No, not very good," said I, at last. "If you knew
all about him, you would say the same; but he taught me to read."

"How long have you been on this island?" said she.

"I was born on it, but my father and mother are both dead, and Jackson
died three years ago--since that I have been quite alone, only Nero with
me."

She then asked me a great many more questions, and I gave her a short
narration of what had passed, and what Jackson had told me; I also
informed her how it was I procured food, and how we must soon leave the
island, now that we were so many, or the food would not last out till
the birds came again.

By this time the fish was cooked, and I took it off the fire and put it
into the kid, and we sat down to breakfast; in an hour or so we had
become very sociable.

I must, however, now stop a little to describe her. What the men had
told me was quite true. She had lost her husband, and was intending to
proceed to England. Her name was Reichardt, for her husband was a
German, or of German family. She was, as I have since ascertained,
about thirty-seven years old, and very tall and elegant; she must have
been very handsome when she was younger, but she had suffered much
hardship in following her husband as she had done, through all the
vicissitudes of his travels.

Her face was oval; eyes black and large; and her hair black as the
raven's wing; her features were small and regular; her teeth white and
good; but her complexion was very pallid, and not a vestige of colour on
her cheeks. As I have since thought, it was more like a marble statue
than anything I can compare her to. There was a degree of severity in
her countenance when she