rength,
and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him talk, and
to look him in the face, it brought the tears to my eyes to see him kiss
and hug the poor old man, and dance round him with joy, then weep, wring
his hands, and beat his own face and head, and then laugh once more,
sing, and leap. For a long time he could not speak to me, so as to, let
me know what all this meant. But at length he told me that he was the
son of this poor old man, and that his name was Jaf.

It would be a hard task for me to tell of all the quaint, signs Friday
made to show his joy. He went in and out of the boat five or six times,
sat down by old Jaf, and held the poor old man's head close to his
breast to warm it; then he set to work to rub his arms and feet, which
were cold and stiff from the bonds. I told Friday to give him some rum
and bread; but he said, "None! Bad dog eat all up self." He then ran off
straight to the house, and took no heed of my calls, but went as swift
as a deer.

In an hour's time, he came back with a jug in his hand. The good soul
had gone all the way to the house, that Jaf might have a fresh draught
from my well; and with it he brought two cakes, one of which I bade him
take to Carl, who lay in the shade of a tree. His limbs were stiff and
cold, and he was too weak to say a word.

I set my man to rub his feet with rum, and while he did so, I saw Friday
turn his head round from time to time, to steal a look at the old man.
Then we brought Carl and Jaf home from the boat on our backs, as they
could not walk. The door of my house was at the top, and the poor sick
men could not climb the steps by which I got in, so we made for them a
tent of old sails.

I was now a king of these three men, as well as Lord of the isle; and
I felt proud to say, "They all owe their lives to their king, and would
lay them down for him if he bade them do so." But I did not think that
my reign was so soon to come to an end. The next thing for us to do was
to give Carl and Jaf some food, and to kill and roast a kid, to which we
all four sat down, and I did my best to cheer them.

Carl in a few days grew quite strong, and I set him to work to dig some
land for seed; for it was clear we should want more corn now that we had
two more mouths to fill. So we put in the ground all the stock of grain
I had, and thus we all four had as much work as we could do for some
time. When the crop grew, and was ripe, we found we had a good