become in no way used to the horrid solitude
of the isle, but still looked round me on all sides (like a man that was
hunted) between fear and hope that I might see some human creature
coming. Now, from a little up the hillside over the bay, I could catch a
sight of the great, ancient church and the roofs of the people's houses
in Iona. And on the other hand, over the low country of the Ross, I saw
smoke go up, morning and evening, as if from a homestead in a hollow of
the land.

I used to watch this smoke, when I was wet and cold, and had my head
half turned with loneliness; and think of the fireside and the company,
till my heart burned. It was the same with the roofs of Iona.
Altogether, this sight I had of men's homes and comfortable lives,
although it put a point on my own sufferings, yet it kept hope alive,
and helped me to eat my raw shell-fish (which had soon grown to be a
disgust) and saved me from the sense of horror I had whenever I was
quite alone with dead rocks, and fowls, and the rain, and the cold sea.

I say it kept hope alive; and indeed it seemed impossible that I should
be left to die on the shores of my own country, and within view of a
church tower and the smoke of men's houses. But the second day passed;
and though as long as the light lasted I kept a bright lookout for boats
on the sound or men passing on the Ross, no help came near me. It still
rained; and I turned in to sleep, as wet as ever and with a cruel sore
throat, but a little comforted, perhaps, by having said good-night to my
next neighbors, the people of Iona.

Charles the Second declared a man could stay out doors more days in the
year in the climate of England than in any other. This was very like a
king with a palace at his back and changes of dry clothes. But he must
have had better luck than I had on that miserable isle. It was the
height of the summer; yet it rained for more than twenty-four hours, and
did not clear until the afternoon of the third day.

This was the day of incidents. In the morning I saw a red deer, a buck
with a fine spread of antlers, standing in the rain on the top of the
island; but he had scarce seen me rise from under my rock, before he
trotted off upon the other side. I supposed he must have swum the
straits; though what should bring any creature to Earraid, was more than
I could fancy.

A little later, as I was jumping about after my limpets, I was startled
by a guinea piece, which fell upon a roc