the more wild. The oars were wrested from the
grasp of my men in an instant; and shivered by the resistless force,
they drove farther and farther out before us upon the waves. Unable to
direct our course, we yielded to the blind power of nature, and seemed
to fly over the surges toward your distant shore, which we already saw
looming through the mist and foam of the deep. Then it was at last that
our boat turned short from its course, and rocked with a motion that
became more wild and dizzy: I know not whether it was overset, or the
violence of the motion threw me overboard. In my agony and struggle at
the thought of a near and terrible death, the waves bore me onward, till
I was cast ashore here beneath the trees of your island."

"Yes, an island!" cried the fisherman; "a short time ago it was only a
point of land. But now, since the forest stream and lake have become all
but mad, it appears to be entirely changed."

"I observed something of it," replied the priest, "as I stole along the
shore in the obscurity; and hearing nothing around me but a sort of wild
uproar, I perceived at last that the noise came from a point exactly
where a beaten footpath disappeared. I now caught the light in your
cottage, and ventured hither, where I cannot sufficiently thank my
Heavenly Father that, after preserving me from the waters, He has also
conducted me to such pious people as you are; and the more so, as it is
difficult to say whether I shall ever behold any other persons in this
world except you four."

"What mean you by those words?" asked the fisherman.

"Can you tell me, then, how long this commotion of the elements will
last?" replied the priest. "I am old; the stream of my life may easily
sink into the ground and vanish before the overflowing of that forest
stream shall subside. And, indeed, it is not impossible that more and
more of the foaming waters may rush in between you and yonder forest,
until you are so far removed from the rest of the world, that your small
fishing-canoe may be incapable of passing over, and the inhabitants of
the continent entirely forget you in your old age amid the dissipation
and diversions of life."

At this melancholy foreboding the old lady shrank back with a feeling of
alarm, crossed herself, and cried, "God forbid!"

But the fisherman looked upon her with a smile and said, "What a strange
being is man! Suppose the worst to happen; our state would not be
different; at any rate, your o