oated away half filled with water. It was not till it had disappeared
in the distance that we remembered--it had contained all our provisions.
That was bad enough, but we had never experienced hunger, and did not
know how long we might exist without food. What appeared, then worse
was, that the waters were rising round our island, and we might soon
have no dry spot on which to rest our feet. We might climb up into the
trees, but we had seen other trees washed away, and such might be the
fate of these our last refuge. The day wore on, the storm ceased, and
the weather again became calm and beautiful. I now grew excessively
hungry, and cried very much, and felt more wretched than I had ever done
before. Malcolm, who bore up wonderfully, tried to comfort me, and
suggested that we should hunt about for roots or underground nuts such
as we had seen the Indians eat. We fortunately had our pocket knives,
and with these we dug in all directions, till we came upon some roots
which looked tempting, but then we remembered that we had no means of
kindling a fire to cook them, nor could we tell whether they were
poisonous or not. The hunt had given us occupation, and prevented us
for a time from dwelling on our misfortunes.

We then tried every device we could think of to kindle a fire, for we
wished to dry our clothes, if we could not cook our roots. None of our
attempts succeeded, and Malcolm suggested that we should run round and
round our island to try and warm ourselves before night came on. At
last I felt very sleepy, and so did Malcolm, but he said that he would
let me sleep first while he watched, lest the waters should rise and
carry us away before we had time to climb up a tree.

I lay down and was asleep in a minute, and when I awoke the stars were
shining out brightly through the branches of the trees, the young grass
blades reflecting them on their shining surfaces, while I saw my good
brother still walking up and down keeping guard over me. The noise of
the rushing waters sounded in my ears and made me desire to go to sleep
again, but I aroused myself, ashamed that I had slept so long, and urged
my brother to lie down.

"No, Harry," he answered, "I wished you to get as much rest as possible;
but look there, we shall soon be obliged to climb a tree for refuge."

Walking a few paces, I found that the water had greatly encroached on
our island; a southerly wind had begun to blow, which sent large waves
rolli