but this is
certain, that it had a good effect upon me, and gradually the hatred and
ill-will that I bore to him wore off, and I found myself handling him
tenderly, and anxious not to give him more pain than was necessary, yet
without being aware that I was prompted by better feelings. It was on
the third morning that he said--

"I can talk to you now; what do you want to know?"

"I want to know the whole story of how we came to this island, who my
father and mother were, and why you said that you hated me and my name?"

"That," said Jackson, after a silence of a few minutes, "will take some
time. I could soon tell it you, if it were not for the last question,--
why I hated your name? But the history of your father is so mixed up
with mine, that I cannot well tell one without the other. I may as well
begin with my own history, and that will be telling you both."

"Then tell it me," replied I, "and do not tell me what is not true."

"No; I will tell you exactly what it was," replied Jackson; "you may as
well know it as not.--Your father and I were both born in England, which
you know is your country by birth, and you also know that the language
we talk is English."

"I did not know it. Tell me something about England before you say any
more."

I will not trouble the reader with Jackson's description of England, or
the many questions which I put to him. It was night-fall before he had
finished answering, and before I was satisfied with the information
imparted. I believe that he was very glad to hold his tongue, for he
complained of being tired, and I dressed his wound and wetted the
bandage with cold water for him before he went to sleep.

I can hardly describe to the reader the effect which this uninterrupted
flow of language had upon me; I was excited in a very strange way, and
for many nights after could not sleep for hours. I may say here, I did
not understand a great proportion of the meaning of the words used by
Jackson; but I gathered it from the context, as I could not always be
interrupting him.

It is astonishing how fast ideas breed ideas, and how a word, the
meaning of which I did not understand when it was first used, became by
repetition clear and intelligible; not that I always put the right
construction on it; but if I did not find it answer when used at another
time to my former interpretation of it, I would then ask and obtain an
explanation. This did not, however, occur very often.