ands. They glided over the
water, catching a glimpse of a man-eating shark, which made them shudder
with dread.

With fair wind and tide they reached the nearest island that day. It was
nearly as large as their own, and the shore was fully as dangerous. The
next was smaller, and both were wooded, with low hills, but poorly
watered. They found goats and foxes abounding on each, but no indication
that a human being had ever been there. All about on every side was the
vast ocean, stretching as far as the eye could reach, with the eternal
wash of waves on the rocks.

Spreading their tent on the shore, they passed the night on the island
nearest their own, and were greatly annoyed by foxes and mosquitoes, so
that with early dawn they were glad to return home.

One never knows how to appreciate home until they have been away, and
John seemed to take a new interest in his house, fields and the tame
goats of his island.

Yet in the night, when slumber had sealed his eyelids, he saw in that
far-away home his wife's pale face, and felt his baby's soft arms once
more about his neck, and in his agony he cried out:

"God send some ship to deliver me!"

Day by day as the years rolled on, John Stevens saw more and more to
admire in the companion with whom his lot was cast. When he was sick or
tired she watched over him with all the tender care of a sister or
mother. When he was saddest she whispered words of hope and cheer in his
ear. In fact Blanche was an ideal woman, a comforter and a helper.

"How could I live here without you, Blanche?" he said one day.

"Heaven tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," she answered. "Nothing is
so bad that it could not be worse." Blanche was a pure Christian girl.
No influence on earth could swerve her from a course marked out for her
by her intellect and approved by her conscience. She was a devout
Christian, and when her companion, in the bitterness of his soul, was
rebellious, her sweet Christian influence led him back to God.

In the stillness of life, talent is formed; but in the storm and stress
of adverse circumstances character is fashioned. Had Blanche returned to
London she might have become a society lady; but here she was a
consoler, binding up the broken heart. She would sit for hours by John's
side talking with him about his wife and children in far-off Virginia,
and she never went to sleep without praying Heaven by some means to take
the father and husband back to his loved o