went forward to examine
them. One was the skeleton of a man, the other that of a dog, which was
extended close beside that of the man, with its head resting on his bosom

Now we were very much concerned about this discovery, and could scarce
refrain from tears on beholding these sad remains. After some time, we
began to talk about what we had seen, and to examine in and around the
hut, in order to discover some clue to the name or history of this poor
man, who had thus died in solitude, with none to mourn his loss save his
cat and his faithful dog. But we found nothing,--neither a book nor a
scrap of paper. We found, however, the decayed remnants of what appeared
to have been clothing, and an old axe. But none of these things bore
marks of any kind; and, indeed, they were so much decayed as to convince
us that they had lain in the condition in which we found them for many
years.

This discovery now accounted to us for the tree stump at the top of the
mountain with the initials cut on it; also for the patch of sugar-cane
and other traces of man which we had met with in the course of our
rambles over the island. And we were much saddened by the reflection
that the lot of this poor wanderer might possibly be our own, after many
years' residence on the island, unless we should be rescued by the visit
of some vessel or the arrival of natives. Having no clue whatever to
account for the presence of this poor human being in such a lonely spot,
we fell to conjecturing what could have brought him there. I was
inclined to think that he must have been a shipwrecked sailor, whose
vessel had been lost here, and all the crew been drowned except himself
and his dog and cat. But Jack thought it more likely that he had run
away from his vessel, and had taken the dog and cat to keep him company.
We were also much occupied in our minds with the wonderful difference
between the cat and the dog. For here we saw that while the one
perished, like a loving friend, by its master's side, with its head
resting on his bosom, the other had sought to sustain itself by prowling
abroad in the forest, and had lived in solitude to a good old age.
However, we did not conclude from this that the cat was destitute of
affection, for we could not forget its emotions on first meeting with us;
but we saw from this, that the dog had a great deal more of generous love
in its nature than the cat, because it not only found it impossible to
live after the