tell. Thus was my life passed away;
my duties were trifling; I had little or nothing to employ myself about,
for I had no means of employment. I seldom heard the human voice,
and became as taciturn as my companion. My amusements were
equally confined--looking down into the depths of the ocean, as I lay
over the rocky wall which girded the major portion of the island, and
watching the motions of the finny tribes below, wondering at the stars
during the night season, eating, and sleeping. Thus did I pass away an
existence without pleasure and without pain. As for what my thoughts
were I can hardly say, my knowledge and my ideas were too confined
for me to have any food for thought. I was little better than a beast of
the field, that lies down on the pasture after he is filled. There was one
great source of interest however, which was, to listen to the sleeping
talk of my companion, and I always looked forward to the time when
the night fell and we repaired to our beds. I would lie awake for hours,
listening to his ejaculations and murmured speech, trying in vain to find
out some meaning in what he would say--but I gained little; he talked
of "that woman"--appearing to be constantly with other men, and
muttering about something he had hidden away. One night, when the
moon was shining bright, he sat up in his bed, which, as I have before
said, was on the floor of the cabin, and throwing aside the feathers upon
which he had been lying, scratched the mould away below them and
lifted up a piece of board. After a minute he replaced everything, and
lay down again. He evidently was sleeping during the whole time. Here,
at last, was something to feed my thoughts with. I had heard him say in
his sleep that he had hidden something--this must be the hiding place.
What was it? Perhaps I ought here to observe that my feelings towards
this man were those of positive dislike, if not hatred; I never had
received one kind word or deed from him, that I could recollect. Harsh
and unfeeling towards me, evidently looking upon me with ill-will, and
only suffering me because I saved him some trouble, and perhaps
because he wished to have a living thing for his companion,--his
feelings towards me were reciprocated by mine towards him. What age
I was at the time my mother died, I know not, but I had some faint
recollection of one who treated me with kindness and caresses, and
these recollections became more forcible in my dreams, when I saw a
figure very different from that of my companion (a female figure)
hanging over me or leading me by the hand. How I used to try to
continue those dreams, by closing my eyes again after I had woke up!
And yet I knew not that they had been brought about by the dim
recollection of my infancy; I knew not that the figure that appeared to
me was the shadow of my mother; but I loved the dreams because I was
treated kindly in them.
But a change took place by the hand of Providence. One day, after we
had just laid in our yearly provision of sea birds, I was busy arranging
the skins of the old birds, on the flat rock, for my annual garment,
which was joined together something like a sack, with holes for the
head and arms to pass through; when, as I looked to seaward, I saw a
large white object on the water.
"Look, master," said I, pointing towards it.
"A ship, a ship!" cried my companion.
"Oh," thought I, "that is a ship; I recollect that he said they came here
in a ship." I kept my eyes on her, and she rounded to.
"Is she alive?" inquired I.
"You're a fool," said the man; "come and help me to pile up this wood
that we may make a signal to her. Go and fetch some water and throw
on it, that there may be plenty of smoke. Thank God, I may leave this
cursed hole at last!"
I hardly understood him, but I went for the water and brought it in the
mess kid.
"I want more wood yet," said he. "Her head is this way, and she will
come nearer."
"Then she is alive," said I.
"Away, fool!" said he, giving me a cuff on the head; "get some more
water and throw on the wood."
He then went into the cabin to strike a light, which he obtained by a
piece of iron and flint, with some fine dry moss for tinder. While he
was so employed, my eyes were fixed on
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