ht to get in before it was
pitch dark. At other times, instead of losing myself in the
midst of the waters, I had a fancy to coast along the green
shores of the island, where the clear waters and cool
shadows tempted me to bathe. But one of my most frequent
expeditions was from the larger island to the less; there I
disembarked and spent my afternoon, sometimes in mimic
rambles among wild elders, persicaries, willows, and shrubs
of every species, sometimes settling myself on the top of a
sandy knoll, covered with turf, wild thyme, flowers, even
sainfoin and trefoil that had most likely been sown there in
old days, making excellent quarters for rabbits. They might
multiply in peace without either fearing anything or harming
anything. I spoke of this to the steward. He at once had
male and female rabbits brought from Neuchatel, and we went
in high state, his wife, one of his sisters, Theresa, and I,
to settle them in the little islet. The foundation of our
colony was a feast-day. The pilot of the Argonauts was not
prouder than I, as I bore my company and the rabbits in
triumph from our island to the smaller one....

When the lake was too rough for me to sail, I spent my
afternoon in going up and down the island, gathering plants
to right and left; seating myself now in smiling lonely
nooks to dream at my ease, now on little terraces and
knolls, to follow with my eyes the superb and ravishing
prospect of the lake and its shores, crowned on one side by
the neighbouring hills, and on the other melting into rich
and fertile plains up to the feet of the pale blue mountains
on their far-off edge.

As evening drew on, I used to come down from the high ground
and sit on the beach at the water's brink in some hidden
sheltering place. There the murmur of the waves and their
agitation, charmed all my senses and drove every other
movement away from my soul; they plunged it into delicious
dreamings, in which I was often surprised by night. The flux
and reflux of the water, its ceaseless stir-swelling and
falling at intervals, striking on ear and sight, made up for
the internal movements which my musings extinguished; they
were enough to give me delight in mere existence, without
taking any trouble of thinking. From time to time arose some