help feeling a pang of regret as I saw the vessel once more spread
her sails and stand away to the southward.

The doctor, Tom, and I, were thus left alone on that solitary isle. It
soon also became evident to me that the former would soon be taken from
us. He had long thought so himself. One day he called me to him, and
begged me to write, on a blank page of the journal I had brought from
the ship to use as a sketch-book, according to his dictation. I found
that I was drawing up a short will, by which he bequeathed all his
little property to some sisters in England, with his devoted love. He
signed it, and Tom and I witnessed his signature. There was no power of
making his will more valid. By this I knew that he himself did not
expect to live many days. He had been latterly spending his entire time
in prayer and in giving good advice to Tom and me, and also in reading
the Bible, a small copy of which he constantly carried in his pocket.
He was a highly scientific man, and as a surgeon first rate; and he was,
as I have found many such, at the same time a sincere Christian. I owe
much to his counsels and exhortations, and if, as some may observe, a
vein showing a mind turned to serious thoughts run through my journal, I
am much indebted to him for it. Scarcely did I think as I was drawing
out his simple will how soon that voice would cease to sound.

Tom and I slept in his hut, and one of us always kept awake that we
might in a moment render him any assistance he might require. I had
just been awoke by Tom, who whispered that he thought the doctor was
worse. Just then we heard him in a feeble voice uttering a few words of
prayer. He was silent. We thought he was asleep. For some time we
waited, then we went to his side and took his hand. It was icy cold,
and fell down again on the leafy couch we had formed for him. Then we
knew that he was indeed gone from us. We both sat down and cried
heartily. Daylight came, and we closed his glassy eyes. We knew that
we must bury him soon. We dug his grave in the sand with bits of board,
and having taken his watch and other things which he had about him, that
we might deliver them to his friends should we ever reach home, we
buried him in it, and then once more sat down and cried as before.

We, however, soon recollected nearly the last advice he gave us. It was
to read some of the Bible every day we remained on the island, and never
to give up the practice el