e his spirits gradually
recovered; nay, he became far happier than he had been since his
childhood, for something of the trust and the love of a little child
were restored to his heart.

He would adorn his hut with fragrant boughs, and as he fed and caressed
his kids, would sing with a light heart the songs of old Scotland. Then
at set of sun he returned to the hut in which he slept, and there once
more sang, and read, and prayed, and so lay down to sleep in peace,
because he knew that it was the Lord only that made him dwell in safety.

"I was a better Christian in my solitude than ever I was before, or than
I fear I shall ever be again," he said, years after he had left the
island. In this there was both truth and error. He had been led by the
merciful goodness of God to repentance and to an earnest desire to
escape from sin, but it was in the life among his fellows that this
repentance and these new resolves--must be tested. It was in the daily
little trials and crosses of a life among other men, that he must learn
to subdue his proud spirit, and curb his hot temper.

Months and even years passed on, and but little happened to vary
Alexander's quiet life in his island home. He had now a large number of
kids around his hut, and had added to his list of favorites several
tamed cats, which he needed to protect him from the troop of rats which
gnawed his bed-clothes, and even nibbled at his feet as he lay asleep.
He had taught the kids and cats, too, to dance, and many a merry hour he
spent among these his daily companions and friends. The clothes which he
had brought on shore had been long since worn out, and he had supplied
their place by a cap, and trousers, and jacket, made of goat-skin. His
needle was a nail, and his thread thin strips of the skin; among his
stores was a piece of linen, and this too he had sewn into shirts,
unravelling one of his stockings for a supply of thread. He was
barefoot, and the soles of his feet had grown so hard that he could
climb sharp crags, and run over the stony beach, unhurt.

[Illustration: A narrow escape.]

Twice or thrice during these lonely years he had seen a sail
approaching, but on these he looked with as much terror as hope, for
should the crew prove to be Spaniards, he knew that he should be made a
prisoner by them, and either put to death, or sent into hopeless
slavery.

Once, indeed, the crew of a Spanish vessel, putting in for water, had
caught sight of the stran