I know that they all died somehow or
another."

"Very true," replied he, recovering himself. "Well, your father
disappeared. He had gone to the rocks to fish, and when I was sent to
bring him home to dinner, he was nowhere to be found. It was supposed
that a larger fish than usual had been fast to his line, and that he had
been jerked off the rocks into the water, and the sharks had taken him.
It was a dreadful affair," continued Jackson, again covering his face.

"I think," replied I, "that any man in his senses would have allowed the
fish to have taken the line rather than have been dragged into the
water. I don't think that the supposed manner of his death is at all
satisfactory."

"Perhaps not," replied Jackson; "his foot may have slipped, who knows?
We only could guess; the line was gone as well as he, which made us
think what I said. Still we searched everywhere, but without hope; and
our search--that is, the captain's and mine, for your poor mother
remained with you in her arms distracted--was the cause of another
disaster--no less than the death of the captain. They say misfortunes
never come single, and surely this was an instance of the truth of the
proverb."

"How did he die?" replied I, gravely; for somehow or other I felt doubts
as to the truth of what he was saying. Jackson did not reply till after
a pause, when he said--

"He was out with me up the ravine collecting firewood, and he fell over
the high cliff. He was so injured that he died in half an hour."

"What did you do?"

"What did I do--what could I do but go back and break the news to your
mother, who was distracted when she heard it; for the captain was her
friend, and she could not bear me."

"Well, go on, pray," said I.

"I did all that I could to make your mother comfortable, as there how
were but her, you; and I, left on the island. You were then about three
years old; but your mother always hated me, and appeared now to hate me
more and more. She never recovered the loss of your father, to whom she
was devotedly attached; she pined away, and after six months she died,
leaving you and me only on the island. Now you know the whole history,
and pray do not ask me any more about it."

CHAPTER TEN.

Jackson threw himself back in his bed-place and was silent. So was I,
for I was recalling all that he had told me, and my doubts were raised
as to the truth of it. I did not like his hurrying over the latter
portion of h