land, on account of
the surf. He came about and headed for the East Bluff.

Then Tommy gave him up in disgust; perhaps thought his conduct
vacillating. Animals all despise that.

He soon landed almost under the volcano, and moored his boat not far from
a cliff peaked with guano. Exercising due caution this time, he got up to
the lagoons, and found a great many ducks swimming about. He approached
little parties to examine their varieties. They all swam out his way;
some of them even flew a few yards, and then settled. Not one would let
him come within forty yards. This convinced Hazel the ducks were not
natives of the island, but strangers, who were not much afraid, because
they had never been molested on this particular island; but still
distrusted man.

While he pondered thus, there was a great noise of wings, and about a
dozen ducks flew over his head on the rise, and passed westward still
rising till they got into the high currents, and away upon the wings of
the wind for distant lands.

The grand rush of their wings, and the off-hand way in which they
spurned, abandoned and disappeared from an island that held him tight,
made Hazel feel very small. His thoughts took the form of satire. "Lords
of the creation, are we? We sink in water; in air we tumble; on earth we
stumble."

These pleasing reflections did not prevent his taking their exact line of
flight, and barking a tree to mark it. He was about to leave the place
when he heard a splashing not far from him, and there was a duck jumping
about on the water in a strange way. Hazel thought a snake had got hold
of her, and ran to her assistance. He took her out of the water and soon
found what was the matter; her bill was open, and a fish's tail was
sticking out. Hazel inserted his finger and dragged out a small fish
which had erected the spines on its back so opportunely as nearly to kill
its destroyer. The duck recovered enough to quack in a feeble and dubious
manner. Hazel kept her for Helen, because she was a plain brown duck.
With some little reluctance he slightly shortened one wing, and stowed
away his captive in the hold of the boat.

He happened to have a great stock of pitch in the boat, so he employed a
few hours in writing upon the guano rocks. On one he wrote in huge
letters:

AN ENGLISH LADY WRECKED HERE. HASTE TO HER RESCUE.

On another he wrote in small letters:

BEWARE THE REEFS ON THE NORTH SIDE.
LIE OFF FOR SIGNALS.

Then he came