stood away to the northward. I was almost as much
overcome as when poor King was blown off the island. I now passed my
days in a dull state of apathy; I had no books, no writing materials.
Had I, as I might when I visited the cabin, brought away a Bible I saw
on the captain's table which he had been reading for the last time, what
a blessing and a comfort it would have, proved to me! I had a knife and
an axe, and I often began to make various articles, but I had not the
heart to finish them, for I always thought--`No one will see them, of
what use will they be?' So the days passed on. Two other vessels
appeared at long intervals, but passed at too great a distance to see
me. One of them was becalmed off the island for some hours, and had I
still possessed the boat I could without difficulty have pulled off to
her. At length I fell sick; I had long been ailing, and it is my belief
that had you not appeared at the moment you did, my career on earth
would soon have been over."

"God, who in His kind mercy had resolved that you should be saved, so
directed our movements for your speedy rescue; so that you owe us no
gratitude," observed Elton. "But I am surprised at the description you
give of your sensations, I had thought that a solitary life on an island
might be made very pleasant and satisfactory."

"Oh, no, no!" cried Jack, "do not believe any such thing. We are not
born to live alone, of that I became convinced. An older man might have
found the life less irksome, but when I took it into my head that I
should never get away it became perfectly terrible. Even had I not been
ill, I do not think that I could have survived many weeks longer."

Such was the outline Jack gave of his life on the island, but when once
he had begun the subject he described many adventures and other details
which showed that there had been rather more variety it his existence
than he had at first led his hearers to suppose, and that had he had
books and paper and pens, he might probably have kept up his spirits
better than he appeared to have done.

"Still, all is well that ends well!" exclaimed Jack, after he had one
day been talking on the subject. "I now feel sure that what I have gone
through was for my ultimate benefit, and I can thank God for the
merciful way in which He has dealt with me."

The _Good Hope_ touched at several islands, the entire population of
which had become Christians not only in name but in deed, as the