irds were all piled up at the
farther end of the cabin, and I could not well remove them; but what was
food without water? I was turning in my mind what should be the first
question put to him; and I had decided that I would have a full and
particular account of how the vessel had been wrecked on the island, and
who were my father and mother, and why I was named Henniker--when I was
roused by hearing Jackson (as I shall in future call him) crying out,
"Boy, boy!"

"Boy, indeed," thought I--"no longer boy," and I gave no reply.

Again he called, and at last he cried out "Henniker," but I had been
ruffled by his calling me boy, and I would not answer him. At last he
fairly screamed my name, and then was silent. After a moment, I
perceived that he crawled out of his bed-place, and feeling by the sides
of the cabin, contrived on his hands and knees to crawl in the direction
of the hole into which the water had previously been received; and I
smiled at what I knew would be his disappointment when he arrived there.
He did so at last: put his hand to feel the edge of the hole, and then
down into it to feel for the water; and when he found that there was
none, he cursed bitterly, and I laughed at his vexation. He then felt
all the way down where the water had fallen, and found that the course
of it had been stopped, and he dared not attempt anything further. He
dashed his clenched hand against the rock. "Oh! That I had him in this
grasp--if it were but for one moment. I would not care if I died the
next."

"I do not doubt you," replied I to him, above; "but you have not got me
in your hands, and you will not. Go in to bed directly--quick," cried
I, throwing a piece of rock at him, which hit him on the head. "Crawl
back as fast as you can, you fool, or I'll send another at your head
directly. I'll tame you, as you used to say to me."

The blow on the head appeared to have confused him; but after a time he
crawled back to his bed-place, and threw himself down with a heavy
groan.

CHAPTER FOUR.

I then went down to the water's edge to see if I could find anything
from the wreck, for the water was smooth, and no longer washed over the
rocks of the island. Except fragments of wood, I perceived nothing
until I arrived at the pool where we were accustomed to bathe; and I
found that the sea had thrown into it two articles of large dimensions--
one was a cask of the size of a puncheon, which lay in about a foot of