r many months. The great
anxiety was with regard to water.

One day Mary and her young companions had gone along the shore for a
considerable distance, when they reached a point of rock upon which they
believed that they should be able to catch a number of fish. Mary did
not take the same interest in the sport that they did, but preferred
wandering along the beach and picking up the beautiful shells, and
several curious creatures that had been cast on shore. Harry and David
soon began to catch a number of fish, and were completely absorbed in
their sport. Mary said that she would go along the beach some little
distance, and then return to them. They saw her walking along, now
stooping down to pick up a shell, now continuing her course close to the
water, when a rock hid her from view. Just at that moment the fish
began to bite faster and faster, and as they hauled them up in their
eagerness they forgot to look out for their companion. Suddenly Harry
exclaimed, "What can have become of Mary? She is a long time away."

They both shouted her name, but there was no answer. Gathering up their
lines and their fish they leaped off the rock, and ran along the beach
in the direction she had gone. They did not, however, see her, and
became greatly alarmed. In vain they shouted her name.

"She certainly could not have turned back and gone the other way," said
Philip; "besides, see, here are the marks of her feet on the sand; she
must have gone on further than she intended." They traced her by the
marks of her feet in the sand for a considerable distance, when she
appeared to have turned inland, away from the beach. "Surely here are
the marks of other feet," said David; "if there were any savages on the
island, I should be afraid she had been carried off by them."

They now pursued in the direction of the marks of the feet, though
Mary's were no longer to be traced. The ground in the centre of the
island being hard, they here lost all traces. They looked round in
every direction. No persons were to be seen. They continued running
eagerly forward, shouting again and again Mary's name, when they found
themselves in front of the French camp. The French jeered at them as
they passed, and as they were unable to speak French, they could not
enquire if any of the people had seen Mary. Not knowing what else to
do, they hurried back to their own friends with the bad news. Captain
Rymer at first would scarcely credit t