ster will
pay them well."

So the boy ran off towards the mill, while Marco floated away helplessly
down the current.

CHAPTER IV.

THE DESERT ISLAND.

After Marco had sailed on for a few minutes, he cast his eyes up the
river, and saw the steamboat. She was still lying in an inclined
position, as she had been left grounded by the tide. He shouted and
waved his hat, in the endeavor to attract the attention of the people on
board, and lead them to send a boat to rescue him. But all his efforts
were vain. He could not make them hear.

The current soon bore him beyond a point of land which hid the steamboat
from his view, and he began to fear that he should be actually carried
out to sea. He was calculating, in fact, how many miles it was to the
mouth of the river, when it suddenly occurred to him that, though he
could not _push_ with his pole, he might perhaps _paddle_ with it. He
accordingly took up the pole, which he had laid down upon the raft, and
began to use it as a paddle.

Marco found, to his great relief, that he could produce considerable
effect upon his raft by using his pole as a paddle. He contrived to get
the head of his raft round towards the shore, and, by working hard, he
succeeded in urging it along through the current, very slowly, indeed,
but still perceptibly, so that he began to have some hope that he might
succeed in reaching land.

Before he had made much progress, however, he suddenly saw before him,
at a short distance, a little rocky island, with some grass and a few
trees on the lower end of it. The island was very small, being not much
longer than Marco's raft. It lay almost directly in his course--so
nearly, that he perceived that by working a little more with his pole,
he thought he could bring himself into such a position as to be thrown
by the current directly upon it.

This he did. He paddled, with all his strength, to get into a line with
the upper end of the island, the current, all the time, bearing him down
directly towards it. In a few minutes, he had the satisfaction of seeing
that he was going directly upon it.

"All right," said he to himself; "now I'm safe."

As he said these words, the end of the raft struck the rock, and he
leaped off upon it. The raft swung round, and was going away, but Marco
seized it, and dragged it up a little way upon the shore, so as to
secure it. He then sat down upon the rock, and began to consider what
was next to be done.

He