ll sorts of
theological subjects with my Bruno, and it seemed to relieve me, even
though I never received any enlightenment from him upon the knotty point
that would be puzzling me at that particular time. What delighted him
most of all was for me to tell him that I loved him very dearly, and that
he was even more valuable to me than the famous dogs of St. Bernard were
to benighted travellers in the snow.

I knew very little about musical instruments, but as I had often longed
for something to make a noise with, if only to drown the maddening crash
of the eternal surf, I fashioned a drum out of a small barrel, with
sharks' skin stretched tightly over the open ends. This I beat with a
couple of sticks as an accompaniment to my singing, and as Bruno
occasionally joined in with a howl of disapproval or a yell of joy, the
effect must have been picturesque if not musical. I was ready to do
almost anything to drown that ceaseless cr-ash, cr-ash of the breakers on
the beach, from whose melancholy and monotonous roar I could never escape
for a single moment throughout the whole of the long day. However, I
escaped its sound when I lay down to sleep at night by a very simple
plan. As I was stone-deaf in the right ear I always slept on the left
side.

Seven weary months had passed away, when one morning, on scanning the
horizon, I suddenly leaped into the air and screamed: "My God! A sail! A
sail!" I nearly became delirious with excitement, but, alas! the ship
was too far out to sea to notice my frantic signals. My island lay very
low, and all that I could make out of the vessel in the distance was her
sails. She must have been fully five miles away, yet, in my excitement,
I ran up and down the miserable beach, shouting in a frenzy and waving my
arms in the hope of attracting the attention of some one on board; but it
was all in vain. The ship, which I concluded was a pearler, kept
steadily on her way, and eventually disappeared below the horizon.

Never can I hope to describe the gnawing pain at my heart as, hoarse and
half mad, I sank exhausted on the sand, watching the last vestige of the
ship disappearing. Altogether, I saw five ships pass in this way during
my sojourn on the island, but they were always too far out at sea to
notice my signals. One of these vessels I knew to be a man-o'-war flying
the British ensign. I tried to rig up a longer flag-staff, as I thought
the original one not high enough for its pu