the
ship, and took the lives of thy mates. Ask why thou wert not torn by the
beasts of prey on the coasts. Ask why thou didst not go down in the
deep sea with the rest of the crew, but didst come to this isle, and art
safe."

A sound sleep then fell on me, and when I woke it must have been three
o'clock the next day, by the rays of the sun: nay, it may have been more
than that; for I think that this must have been the day that I did not
mark on my post, as I have since found that there was one notch too few.

I now took from my store the Book of God's Word, which I had brought
from the wreck, not one page, of which I had yet read. My eyes fell on
five words, that would seem to have been put there for my good at this
time; so well did they cheer my faint hopes, and touch the true source
of my fears. They were these: "I will not leave thee." And they have
dwelt in my heart to this day. I laid down the book, to pray. My cry was
"O, Lord, help me to love and learn thy ways."

This was the first time in all my life that I had felt a sense that God
was near, and heard me. As for my dull life here, it was not worth a
thought; for now a new strength had come to me; and there was a change
in my griefs, as well as in my joys.

I had now been in the isle twelve months, and I thought it was time to
go all round it, in search of its woods, springs, and creeks. So I set
off, and brought back with me limes and grapes in their prime, large and
ripe. I had hung the grapes in the sun to dry, and in a few days' time
went to fetch them, that I might lay up a store. The vale, on the banks
of which they grew, was fresh and green, and a clear, bright stream ran
through it, which gave so great a charm to the spot, as to make me wish
to live there.

But there was no view of the sea from this vale, while from my house, no
ships could come on my side of the isle, and not be seen by me; yet the
cool, soft banks were so sweet and new to me that much of my time was
spent there.

In the first of the three years in which I had grown corn, I had sown
it too late; in the next, it was spoilt by the drought; but the third
years' crop had sprung up well.

I found that the hares would lie in it night and day, for which there
was no cure but to plant a thick hedge all round it; and this took me
more than three weeks to do. I shot the hares in the day time; and when
it grew dark, I made fast the dog's chain to the gate, and there he
stood to bark al