apples of several kinds. We had abundance of
furniture, and an inexhaustible stock of provisions. We had a most
gorgeous show of flowers, of many different species; our new
kitchen-garden was full of useful vegetables--young fruit-trees were
yielding their produce wherever they had been planted--the poultry had
more than doubled their number--the calves were taking upon themselves
the full dignity of the state of cow and bull--the ewes had numerous
lambs--and the pigs had not only grown into excellent pork, but had
already produced more than one litter, that would be found equally
desirable when provisions ran scarce. We had two growing crops, of
different kinds of grain, and a large pasture-field fenced round.

The Little Savage, at seventeen, had been transformed into a farmer, and
the cultivation of the farm and the care of the live stock soon left him
no time for indulging in vain longings to leave the island, or useless
regrets for the fair creature who, even in death, I had regarded as its
greatest ornament.

Two years later, still greater improvements, and still greater additions
became visible. We were establishing a dairy farm on a small scale, and
as our herds and flocks, as well as the pigs and poultry, increased
rapidly, we promised in a few years to be the most thriving farmers that
had ever lived in that part of the world by the cultivation of the land.

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

Although my first experimental voyage had proved so hazardous, now that
I was better provided for meeting its perils, I became anxious to make
another attempt to circumnavigate the island. The boat that had
belonged to the wrecked ship, from the frequent trips I had made in her
to and from the shore, I could manage as well as if I had been rowing
boats all my life.

With the assistance of Mrs Reichardt, who pulled an oar almost as well
as myself, we could get her along in very good style, even when heavily
laden, and our labours together had taken from her all that timidity
which had deterred her from trusting herself with me, when I first
ventured from the island.

I was, however, very differently circumstanced now, to what I was then.
Instead of a frail cockle-shell, that threatened to be capsized by every
billow that approached it, and that would scarcely hold two persons
comfortably, I was master of a well-built ship's boat, that would hold
half a dozen with ease, and except in very rough weather, was as safe as
an