CHAPTER XXVI.

Otago Witness, Issue 877, 19 September 1868, Page 20

CH A PT ER XX VI.

After a long silence, Hazel asked her in & low voice if she could be tKere in half an hour. 'She said yes, in the same tone, but without turning her head. On reaching the graves, she found that Hazel had spared her a sad sight; nothing remained but to perform the service. When it was over, she went slowly •.way in deep distress, on more accounts than one. In due course, Hazel came to her bower, but she was not there, Then he lighted" the fire, and prepared everything for sapper; and he was bo busy, and her foot so light, he did not hear her come. < But, by-and-by, lifting his head, he saw her looking wistfully at him, as if she would read his soul in Ms minutest actions. He started, and brightened all over with pleasure at the sudden sight of her, and said, eagerly, "Your supper isj quite ready." " Thank you, sir," said she, sadly and •oldly; (she had noted that expression of joy,) "I have no appetite ; do not wait for me." And soon after strolled away again. Hazel was dumb-foundered. There was now no mistaking her manner ; it was chilly and reserved all of a sudden. It wounded him; but he behaved like a man ; what ! I keep her out of her own house, do 1 1 said he to himself. He started up, took a fish out of the pot, wrapped it in a leaf, and stalked off to his boat. ' Then he ate a little of the fish, threw t"ie rest away, and went down upon the sands, and paced them in a sad and bitter mood. But the night calmed him, and some hours of tranquil thought brought him fortitude, patience, and a clearer undergtanding. He went to his boat, elevated by generous and delicate resolutions. Now Worthy resolves are tranquilising, and he slept profoundly. Not so jshe, whose sudden, but very natural change of demeanor had hurt him. When she returned, and found he was gone for the night, she began to be afraid she had offended him. For this and other reasons, she passed the night in sore perplexity, and did not sleep till morning ; and so she overslept her usual time. However, when she was up, she determined to find her own breakfast ; she felt it would not do to be too dependent, and on a person of uncertain humor ; such for the moment she chose to pretend to herself was Hazel. Accordingly, ■he went down to the sea to look for crayfish. She found abundance. There they li>y in the water ; you had but to stoop ajjcj" oick them up. But *l as - *kOVk 0V w . ere klack, lively, viperish • * he went with no great relish for the task fr *& c one *P J lt T^^M maliciously; she* dropped it, and at that very moment, by e£ (sunous coincidence, remembered she was «ick and tired of crayfish ; she would breaMast on fruits. She crossed the sand, took off her shoes, and paddled through the river, and, having put on her shoes again, was about to walk up through some rank grass to the big wood, when she heard a voice behind her, and it was Mr Hazel. She bit her lip (it was broad daylight now), and prepared ' quietly to discourage this excessive assiduity. He came up to her, panting a little, and taking off his hat, said, with marked respect, " I beg your pardon, Miss Rolleston, but 1 know* you hate reptiles ; now there are a, few snakes in that long grass ; not poisonous ones." "Snakes!" cried Helen ; "let me go home : there— l'll go without my breakfast." " Oh, I hope not," said Hazel, ruefully ; " why, I have been rather fortunate this morning, and it is all ready." " That is a different thing," said Helen, graciously ; " you shall not have your trouble for nothing." Directly after breakfast, Hazel took his axe and some rope from the boat, and went off in a great hurry to the jungle. in half an hour or so he returned, dragging a large conical shrub, armed with epikes for leaves, incredibly dense and " There," said he, " therms a vegetable toorcupine for you. This is your best de* fence against that roaring Bugbear. " That little tree I" said Helen ; "tb-e tjger would soon jump over that." " Ay, but not over this and sixty more ; a wall of stilettos. Don't touch % please." He worked very hard all day, and raised & low rampart of these prickly trees ; but it only went round two sides and a haJi of the bower. So then he said he had failed Again ; and lay down worn out by fatigue. Helen Eolleston, though dejected heraelf, could not help pitying him for his exhaustion in her service, and for bus bleeding hands ; she undertook the cookins and urged him kindly to eat of every dish ; and* when he rose to go, she thanlced him with as much feeling as modesty for the grea* pains he had taken to lessen those fears of hers, which she saw he did riot share. . These kind words more than jrapaia Aim, He werjt to his littia den in agw

of spirits ; and the.joext morning went off in a violent hurry, and, for once, seemed glad to get away from. her. "Poor Mr Hazel," said she, softly, and watched him out of sight. Then she went to the high point where he had barked a tree ; and looked far and wide for a sail. The air was wonderfully clear ; the whole ocean seemed in sight : but all was blank.

A great awe fell upon her, and sickness of heart; and then first she began to fear she was out of the known world, and might die on that island ; or never be found by the present generation : and this sickening fear lurked in »her from that hour, and led to consequences which will be related shortly.

She did not return for a long while, and, when she did, she found Hazel had completed her fortifications. He invited her to explore the western part of the island, but she declined. " Thank you," said she ; " not to-day ; there is something to be done at home. I have been comparing my abode with yours, and the contrast makes me uncomfortable, if it doesn't you. Oblige me by building yourself a house."

" What, in an afternoon ?" " Well, at all events, you must roof the boat or something. There, I'll sit by and what shall I do, whilst you are working to oblige me 1" Hazel reflected a. minute, and then asked her if she could plait. She said she could as far as five strands. " And net, of course 1"

" Oh, yes." Then, if you will make a fishing-net of cocoa-nut fibre, I will soon give myself all the shelter a healthy man requires in this climate."

The boat lay in a little triangular creek ; the surrounding earth was alluvial clay ; a sort of black cheesy mould, stiff, but kindly to work. Hazel contrived to cut and chisel it out with a clumsy wooden spade he had made, and, throwing it to the sides, raised, by degrees, two mud banks, one on each side the boat ; and atlast he dug so deep that he was enabled to draw the boat another yard inland.

As Helen sat by, netting, and forcing a smile now and then, though sad at heart, he was on his mettle, and the mud walls rose rapidly. He squared their inner sides with the spade. When he had done, the boat lay in a hollow, the walla of which, half-natural, half-artifi-cial, were five feet above her gunwale, and, of course, eight feet above her bottom, in which Hazel used to lie at night. He then laid the mainsail across, so as to roof the stern part of the boat ; and put four heavy stones on it, lest a sudden gust of wind might lift it. Helen said it was all very clever ; but Bhe doubted whether it would keep out much rain.

"More than yours will," said Hazel, "and that is a very serious thing. In your state of health, a wetting might be fatal. But, to-morrow, if you please, I T will examine our resources, and lay our whole situation before you, and ask your advice." Next morning, he kept his word, and laid their case before her.

He said : "We are here on an island that ha 3 probably been seen, and disregarded, by a few whalers, but is not known to navigators, nor down on any; chart. There is a wide range of vegetation, proving a delightful climate on the whole, and one particularly suited to you, whose lungs are delicate. But then, comparing the beds of the rivers with the banks, a tremendous fall of rain is indicated. The rainy months (in these latitudes) are at hand, and if those rains catch, us in our present condition, it will be a, calamity. You have no roof to keep it out. I tremble when I think of it. This ia my main anxiety, My next is about our sustenance during the rains : we have no stores under cover ; no fuel ; no provisions, but a few cocoa-nuts. We use two lucifer matches a day „• and what is to become of us at that rate 1 In theory, fire can be got by rubbing two pieces of wood together ; Selkirk is Baid to have so obtained it from pimento wood on Juan Fernandez 1 ; but, in fact, I believe, the art is confined to savages. I never met a civilised man who could do it, and I have questioned scores of voyagers. As for my weapons, they consist of a boat-hook and an axe ; no gun, no harpoon, no bow, no lance. My tools are a blunt saw, a blunter axe, a wooden spade, two great augers, that I believe had a hand in bringing us' here, but have not been any use to us since, a centre-bit, two planes, a hammer, a pair of pincers, two brad- awls, three gimlets, two scrapers, a plumb-lead and line, a large pair of scissors, and you have a small pair, two gouges, a screw-driver, five clasp knives, a few screws and nails of various sfces, two araaU barrels, two bags, two tin bowls, two wooden bowls, and the shell of a turtle, whose Bkelelbn I found, <?n the slpe, a.nd that i* ft pay gPO& fsbf

tureen,, only we have no meat to make soup with." v Well, sir," said Miss "Roileston, resignedly, "we can but kneel down and die."

"That would be cutting the Grordian knot, indeed," said Hazel. " What, die to shirk a few difficulties 1 No. 1 have three propositions to lay before you. Ist. That I hereby give up walking and take to running ; time is so precious. 2nd. That we both work by night as well as day. 3rd. That we each tell the other our principal wants, so that there may be four eyes on the look-out, as we go, instead of two." " I consent," said Helen. " Pray what are your wants ? " "Iron, oil, .salt, tar, a bellows, a.pickaxe, thread, nets, light matting for roofs, bricks, chimney-pots, jars, glass, animal food, some variety of vegetable food, and so on. New tell me your wants." " Well, I want — Impossibilities." " Enumerate them. "What is the use?" "It is the method we have agreed upon." " Oh, very well, then. I want — a sponge." "Good. What next?" " I hare broken my comb." "Good." f "I'm glad you think so. I want — oh, Mr Hazel, what is the use I—well,1 — well, 1 want a looking-glass." ' ' Great Heavens ! What for ?"

" Oh, never mind : I want one ; and some more towels, and some soap, and a few hair-pins ; and Borne elastic bands ; and some pen, ink, and paper, to write my feelings down in this island for nobody ever to see."

When she began Hazel looked bright, but the list was like a wasp, its sting lay in its tail. However, he put a good face on it. "I'll try] and get you all those things ; only give me time. Do you know, I am writing a dictionary on a novel method."

" That means on the sand."

"No; the work is suspended for the present. But two of the definitions in it are — Difficulties — things to be subdued; Impossibilities — things to be trampled on."

" Well, subdue mine. Trample on — a sponge for me."

" That is just what I was going to do," said he ; opened a clasp knife, and jumped into the river.

Helen screamed faintly ; but after all, the water was only up to his knees. He soon cut a large sponge off a piece of slimy rock, and held it up to her. "There," said he, "why, there are a score of them at your very door, and you never saw them V

"Oh, excuse me, I did see them, and shuddered ; I thought they were reptiles ; dormant, and biding their time."

She strolled towards the jungle ; and he got his spads, and went post-haste to his clay-pit.

He made a quantity of bricks and tiles, and brought them home, and put them to dry in the sun. He then tried to make a large narrow-necked vessel, and failed utterly ; so utterly that he lay down flat on his back and accepted failure for full twenty minutes. Then he got up and turned the dead failure into a great rude platter like a shallow milk-pan. Leaving all these to dry and set before he baked them, he went off to the marsh for fern - leaves. He made several trips, and raised quite a stack of them. By this time the sun had operated on his thinner pottery ; so he laid down six of his large thick tiles, and lighted a fire on them with dry banana-leaves, and cocoa-nut, &c, and such light combustibles, until he had heated and hardened the clay ; then he put the ashes on one side, and swept the clay clean; then he put the fire on again, and made it hotter and hotter, till the clay began to redden. While he was thus occupied, Misß Rolleston came from the jungle, carrying vegetable treasures in her apron. First she produced some golden apples with reddish leaves.

"There," said she; "and they smell delicious." Hazel eyed them keenly. "You have not eaten any of them?"

" What ! by myself ?" said Helen. " Thank Heaven !" said Hazel, turning pale. "These are the manchanilla, the poison apple of the Pacific." " Poison V* said Helen, alarmed in her turn.

"Well, I don't know that they are poison : but travellers give them a Tery bad name. The birds never peck them ; and I have read that even the leaves falling into still water have killed the fish. You will not eat anything^here till you havefehown itjme, will you V said he imploringly. "No, no," said Helen ; and sat down with her hand to her heart a minute. " And I was so pleased when I found them," she said ; '* they reminded me of home. I wonder whether these are poison, too ?" and she opened her apron Vjd© ; m 4 shewed. tym ss Oms O m$ Jong yejlaw

pods, with, red .specks, . something like a very large banana. "Ah, that is a very different affair," said Hazel, delighted ; "these are plaintains, and the greatest find we have made yet. The fruit is meat, the wood is thread, and the leaf is shelter and clothes. The fruit is good raw, and better baked, as you shall see ; and I believe this is the first time the dinner and the Hinfr were both baked together." He cleared the now heated hearth, put the meat and fruit on it, then placed his great platter over it, and heaped fire round the platter and light combustibles over it. And, in a word, the platter and the dinner under it were both baked. Hazel removed the platter or milk«pan, and served the dinner in it. A lady and gentleman cast upon a desert island must use their eyes, hands, and feet, in earnest, or die the death ©f fools. And the first week these two passed was, therefore, mainly characterised by hard work, and the Invention that is the natural fruit of Necessity. This it was our dnty to show, or else give a thoroughly false picture of human

But, as to the manner of working, tnai varies greatly, according to the sentiments of the heart.

Helen Bolleston worked well and neatly. She invented but little ; her execution of what she did was superior to Mr Hazel's. She showed considerable tact in adapting new products to old purposes. She made as follows :

1. Thick mattress, stuffed with vegetable hair and wool. This hair was a, cypress moss dried, and the wool was the soft coating of the fern-trees. This mattress was made with plantainleaves, sewed together with the thread furnished by the tree itself, and doubled at the edges.

2. A long shallow net, cocoa-fibre. 3. A great quantity of stout grass rope, and light, but close, matting for the roof.

But, while she worked, her mind was often far away, and her heart in a tumult of fear, trouble, shame, and perplexity, which increased rather than diminished as the days rolled by and brought no ship to the island. On the other hand, she was deeply grateful to Mr Hazel — as well she might. But she foand many little opportunities of showing that sentiment to him. That war of sentiments which agitated her, as a lady affianced by her own consent to Arthur Wardlaw, she suppressed and hid from him as long aa she could.

NW it is the nature of suppressed sentiments to accumulate force.

To Hazel, on the contrary, the feverish labor of the first three weeks was an unmixed joy. He was working, not only for the comfort, but the health, and even the life, of the lady he loved ; a Hfe she had herself despaired of not so very long ago. These sentiments made his homeliest work poetical : it was in this spirit he heightened his own mud banks in the centre, and set up brick fireplaces with hearth and chimney, one on each side; and now did all the cooking; for ho found the smoke from Wood mad*) Miss Rolleston. cough. He also made a number of pigeon-holes in his mud walls and lined them with clay. One of these he dried with fire, and made a pottery door 1 to it, and there kept the ltlcifef box. He made a vast number of bricks, but did nothing with them. After several disheartening failures he made two large pots, and two great pans, that would all four bear fire under them, and in the pans he boiled sea water till it all evaporated and left him a sediment of salt. This was a great addition to their food, and he managed also to put by a little. But it was a slow and inefficient process. But that was nothing compared to the zest with which he attacked the most important work of all, and the longest, — Helen's hut, or bower. He had no experience or skill as a carpenter, but he had Love and Brains. He found sandstones, some harsh, some fine, with which he contrived to sharpen his axe and saw. He fixed some uprights between the four trees. He leb stout horizontal bars into the trees, and bound them to the uprights with Helen's grass-rope. Smaller horizontal bars at intervals kept the prickly ramparts from being driven in by a sudden gust. The canvas walls were removed, and the nails stored in a pigeon-hole, and a stout network substituted, to which huge plantain leaves were cunningly fastened with plaintain thread. The roof was double : first that extraordinary mass of spiked leaves which the four trees threw out, then, several feet tmder that, the huge piece of matting the pair had made. This was strengthened by double strips of canvas at the edges and in the centre, and by single strips in other parts. A great many cords and strings made of that long silky grass peculiar to the island were sewn to the canvas-strengthened edges and so it was fastened to the trees, and to, the&ori' gonte} bars,

When this work drew, dose to its com* pletion, there came anew disappointment. He had 1 the mortification of seeing that she for whom it was all done did not share his complacency.

The strife of sentiments in her mind seemed' to be undermining her self-com-mand, and, at times, even her goodbreeding. She often let her work fall, and brooded for hours. She spoke sometimes fretfully, and the next moment •with a Blight excess of civility. She wandered away from Mm, and from his labor* for her comfort, and passed hours at Telegraph Point, eyeing the illimitable ocean. She was a riddle. All sweetness at times, but at others irritable, moody, and scarce mistress of herself. Hazel was sorry and perplexed, and often expressed a fear she was iIL She always replied in the negative, and the next moment her eyes would fill with tears. The truth is, she was in considerable irritation of body, and a sort of mental distress which, perhaps, only the more sensitive of her own sex can fully apperoiate.

Matters were still in this uncomfortable and mysterious state when Hazel put his finishing stroke to her abode. He was in high spirits that evening : for he had made a .discovery ; he had at last found time for.'a walk, and followed the river to its source^ ai Tory remarkable lake in a hilly basin. And making further researches, he had found at the bottom of a rocky ravine a curiou3 thing, a dark resinous fluid bubbling up in quite a fountain', which, however, fell down again as it rose, and hardly- any overflowed. It was like thin pitch. Of course in another hour he was back there with a great pot, and half filled it. Pursuing his researches a little farther he found a range of rocks with snowy summits apparently ; but the snow was the guano of centuries. He was in a great hurry to get home -with his pot of pitch ; for it was in truth a very remarkable discovery, though not without a parallel. He could not wait till morning, so with embers and cocoa-nut he made a fire just outside the bower, and melted his pitch which had become nearly solid, and proceeded to smear the inside of the matting in places, to make it thoroughly watertight.

Helen treated the discovery at first with mortifying indifference : but he hoped she ■would appreciate Nature's bounty more, when -she saw the practical use of this extraordinary production. He endeavored to lead her to that view. She shook her head, sorrowfully. He persisted. She met him with silence. He thought tiiis peevish^ and ungrateful to Heaven ; we have all different measures of the wonderful ; and to him. a fountain of pitch was a thing to admire greatly and thank God for— he said as much.

To Helen it was nasty stuff, and who cares where it came from. She conveyed as much by a shrug of the shoulders, aud then gave a sigh that told her mind was far away.

He was a little mortified, and showed

One word led to another, and at last what had been, long fermenting came out.

"Mr Hazel, 31 said Bhe, "you and I are at cross purposes. You mean to live here. I do not."

Hazel left off working, and looked greatly perplexed ; the attack was so Budden in its form, though it had been a long time threatening. He found nothing to say, and she was impatient now to speak her mind, so she replied to his look.

"You are making yourself at home here. You are contented. Contented ? You arß happy in this horrible prison." "And why not V said Hazel.— But he looked rather guilty. — "Here are no traitors ;no murderers. The animals are my friends, and the one human being I see makes me better to look at her."

"Mr Hazel, i am in a state of mind that romance jars on me. Be honest -with me, and talk to me like a man. I say that you beam all over with happiness and content, and that you now answer me one question ; why have you never lighted the bonfire on Telegraph Point?" " Indeed I don't know," said he, submissively. ' ' I have been so occupied. " " You have : and how ? Not in trying to deliver us both from this dreadful situation, but to reconcile me to it. Yes, sir, under pretence (that is a harsh word, but 1 can't help it) of keeping out the rain. Your rain is a bugbear. It never rains, it never will rain. You are killing yourself almost, to make me comfortable in this place. Comfortable V She began to writhe, and pant, ■with excitement long restrained. " And do you really suppose you can make me live on like this, by building me a nice hut ? Do you think lam all body and no soul, that shelter and warmth and enough to eat can keep my heart from breaking, and my cheeks from blushingnightand day ? When I wake in the morning I find myself blushing to my fingers' ends." Then she-writhed away fromhixn," "Oh, my dear

father, why did I ever leave yotf I* Then she writhed back. "Keep me here? make me live months and years on this island. Have you sisters ? Have you a mother? Ask yourself, iB it likely? No ; if you will not help me, and they don't love me enough to come and find me and take me home, I'll go to another home without your help, or any man's." She rose suddenly to her feet. "I'll tie my clothes round me, and fling myself down from that point on the sharp rocks below. I'll find a way from this place to Heaven, if there's no way from it to those I love on earth."

Then she sank down and rocked herself and sobbed aloud.

The strong passion of this hitherto gentle creature quite frightened her unhappy friend, who knew more of books than women. He longed to soothe her and comfort her ; but what could he say. He cried out in despair, " My God, can I do nothing for her?"

She turned on him like lightning, " You can do anything : everything. You can restore us both to our friends. You can save my life, my reason. JTor that will go first, I think. What had I done ? what had I ever done since I was born, to be so brought down ? Was ever an English lady ? And then I have such an irritation on my skin, all over me ; I sometimes wish the tiger would come and tear me all to pieces ; yes, all to pieces ' And with that her white teeth clicked together convulsively. "Do !" said she, darting back to the point as swiftly as she had rushed away from it. " Why put down that ; and leave off inventing fifty little trumpery things for me, and do one great thing instead. Oh, do not fritter that great mind of yours in painting and patching my prison ; but bring it all to bear on getting me md of my prison. Call sea and land to our rescue. Let them know a poor girl is here in unheard-of, unfathomable misery : here, in the middle of this awful ocean."

Hazel sighed deeply. "No ships seem to pass within sight of us," he muttered.

' ' What does that matter to you f You are not a common man ; you are an Inventor. Bouse all the powers of your mind. There must be some way. Think for me. Thi^k ! Think !— or my blood will be on your head."

Hazel turned pale and put his head in his hands, and tried to think.

She leaned towards him with great flashing eyes of purest hazel. The problem dropped from his lips a syllable at a time. "To diffuse — intelligence — a hundred leagues from a fixed pomt — an island ?" *

She leaned towards him with flashing, expectant eyes.

But he groaned, and said : " That seems impossible."

" Then trample on it," said she, bringing his own words against him ; for she used to remember all he said to her in the day, and ponder it at night. "Trample on it, subdue it, or never speak to me again. Ah, lam an ungrateful wretch to speak harshly to you. It is my misery, not me. Good, kind, Mr Hazel, 0 pray, pray, pray, pray, bring all the powers of that great mind to bear on this one thing, and save a poor girl, to whom you hare been so kind, so considerate, so noble, so delicate, so forbearing ; now save me from despair !"

Hysterical sobs cut her short here, and Hazel, whose loving heart she had almost torn out of his body, could only falter out in a broken voice, that he would obey her. " I'll work no more for you at present," said he, "sweet as it has been. I will think instead. I will go this moment beneath the stars and think all night."

The young woman was now leaning her head languidly back against one of the trees, weak as water after her passion. He cast a look of ineffable love and pUy on her, and withdrew slowly to think beneath the tranquil stars.

Love has set men hard tasks in his time. Whether this was a light one, our" readers shall decide.

To DIFFUSE INTELLIGENCE FEOM" A FIXED ISLAND OVEB A HUNDRED LEAGUES OF OCBAN.

(To be continued. )

A little colored boy, who was crying in the street was asked by a gentleman what the matter was. The following is the young ebony's reply : — "De matter's 'miff— double trouble all ober de house. Fader am druak, mudder am gone , home wid de cloze, siss broke de looking-glass wid de broom-stick, de baby hab got her eyeß fall of Iryan pepper, and little Pete Wood put de mustard on de hair for goose grease. I put salt in my tea fur white sugar wat mudder has when Professor Hannibal comes to see her, and it made me see-sick. De dog licked Pete's face, and got his monf full ob de mustard, and lies under debed a howling. De kitten got he head in de milk pot. and I cut her hed off to save de pitoher, and dea I had to break de pitcher to get the hei out, and de way I'll get licked when mudder comes home for aettin the bed on fire will be a sin."