CHAPTER XXVI.
AFTER a long silence, Hazel asked her in a low voice if she could bethere in half an hour. She said yes, in the same tone, but withoutturning her head. On reaching the graves, she found that Hazel had sparedher a sad sight; nothing remained but to perform the service. When it wasover she went slowly away in deep distress on more accounts than one. Indue course Hazel came to her bower, but she was not there. Then helighted the fire, and prepared everything for supper; and he was so busy,and her foot so light, he did not hear her come. But by and by, liftinghis head, he saw her looking wistfully at him, as if she would read hissoul in his minutest actions. He started and brightened all over withpleasure at the sudden sight of her, and said eagerly, "Your supper isquite ready."
"Thank you, sir," said she, sadly and coldly (she had noted thatexpression of joy), "I have no appetite; do not wait for me." And soonafter strolled away again.
Hazel was dumfounded. There was no mistaking her manner; it was chillyand reserved all of a sudden. It wounded him; but he behaved like a man."What! I keep her out of her own house, do I?" said he to himself. Hestarted up, took a fish out of the pot, wrapped it in a leaf, and stalkedoff to his boat. Then he ate a little of the fish, threw the rest away,and went down upon the sands, and paced them in a sad and bitter mood.
But the night calmed him, and some hours of tranquil thought brought himfortitude, patience and a clear understanding. He went to his boat,elevated by generous and delicate resolutions. Now worthy resolves aretranquilizing, and he slept profoundly.
Not so she, whose sudden but very natural change of demeanor had hurthim. When she returned and found he was gone for the night, she began tobe alarmed at having offended him.
For this and other reasons she passed the night in sore perplexity, anddid not sleep till morning; and so she overslept her usual time. However,when she was up, she determined to find her own breakfast; she felt itwould not do to be too dependent, and on a person of uncertain humor;such for the moment she chose to pretend to herself was Hazel.Accordingly she went down to the sea to look for crayfish. She foundabundance. There they lay in the water; you had but to stoop and pickthem up.
But alas! they were black, lively, viperish; she went with no greatrelish for the task to take one up; it wriggled maliciously; she droppedit, and at that very moment, by a curious coincidence, remembered she wassick and tired of crayfish; she would breakfast on fruits. She crossedthe sand, took off her shoes, and paddled through the river, and; havingput on her shoes again, was about to walk up through some rank grass tothe big wood, when she heard a voice behind her, and it was Mr. Hazel.She bit her lip (it was broad daylight now), and prepared quietly todiscourage this excessive assiduity. He came up to her panting a little,and, taking off his hat, said, with marked respect, "I beg your pardon,Miss Rolleston, but I know you hate reptiles; now there are a few snakesin that long grass; not poisonous ones."
"Snakes!" cried Helen; "let me get home; there--I'll go without mybreakfast."
"Oh, I hope not," said Hazel, ruefully; "why, I have been ratherfortunate this morning, and it is all ready."
"That is a different thing," said Helen, graciously; "you must not haveyour trouble for nothing, I suppose."
Directly after breakfast, Hazel took his ax and some rope from the boat,and went off in a great hurry to the jungle. In half an hour or so hereturned, dragging a large conical shrub, armed with spikes for leaves,incredibly dense and prickly.
"There," said he, "there's a vegetable porcupine for you. This is yourbest defense against that roaring bugbear."
"That little tree!" said Helen; "the tiger would soon jump over that."
"Ay, but not over this and sixty more; a wall of stilettos. Don't touchit, please."
He worked very hard all day, and brought twelve of these prickly trees tothe bower by sunset. He was very dissatisfied with his day's work; seemedquite mortified.
"This comes of beginning at the wrong end," he said; "I went to work likea fool. I should have begun by making a cart."
"But you can't do that," said Helen, soothingly; "no gentleman can make acart."
"Oh, surely anybody can make a cart, by a little thinking," said he.
"I wish," said Helen, listlessly, "you would think of something for me todo; I begin to be ashamed of not helping."
"Hum! you can plait?"
"Yes, as far as seven strands."
"Then you need never be unemployed. We want ropes, and shall want largemats for the rainy weather."
He went to the place where he had warned her of the snakes, and cut agreat bundle of long silky grass, surprisingly tough, yet neither harshnor juicy; he brought it her and said he should be very glad of a hundredyards of light cord, three ply and five ply.
She was charmed with the grass, and the very next morning she came tobreakfast with it nicely prepared, and a good deal of cord made andhanging round her neck. She found some preparations for carpenter's worklying about.
"Is that great log for the cart?" said she.
"Yes! it is a section of a sago-tree."
"What, our sago?"
"The basis. See, in the center it is all soft pith." He got from the boatone of the augers that had scuttled the _Proserpine,_ and soon turned thepith out. "They pound that pith in water, and run it through linen; thenset the water in the sun to evaporate. The sediment is the sago ofcommerce, and sad insipid stuff it is."
"Oh, please don't call anything names one has eaten in England," saidHelen, sorrowfully.
After a hasty meal, she and Mr. Hazel worked for a wager. Her taperfingers went like the wind, and though she watched him, and askedquestions, she never stopped plaiting. Mr. Hazel was no carpenter, he wasmerely Brains spurred by Necessity. He went to work and sawed off fourshort disks of the sago-log.
"Now what are those, pray?" asked Helen.
"The wheels--primeval wheels. And here are the linchpins, made of hardwood; I wattled them at odd times."
He then produced two young lime-trees he had rooted up that morning andsawed them into poles in a minute. Then he bored two holes in each pole,about four inches from either extremity, and fitted his linchpins; thenhe drew out his linchpins, passed each pole first through one disk, andthen through another, and fastened his linchpins. Then he ran to theboat, and came back with the stern and midship thwarts. He drilled withhis center-bit three rows of holes in these, two inches from the edge.And now Helen's work came in; her grass rope bound the thwarts tight tothe horizontal poles, leaving the disks room to play easily between thethwarts and the linchpins; but there was an open space thirteen inchesbroad between the thwarts; this space Hazel herring-boned over with someof Helen's rope drawn as tight as possible. The cart was now made. Timeoccupied in its production, three hours and forty minutes.
The coachmaker was very hot, and Helen asked him timidly whether he hadnot better rest and eat. "No time for that," said he. "The day is nothalf long enough for what I have to do." He drank copiously from thestream; put the carpenter's basket into the cart, got the tow-rope fromthe boat and fastened it to the cart in this shape: A, putting himself inthe center. So now the coachmaker was the horse, and off they went,rattling and creaking, to the jungle.
Helen turned her stool and watched this pageant enter the jungle. Sheplaited on, but not so merrily. Hazel's companionship and bustling waysomehow kept her spirits up.
But, whenever she was left alone, she gazed on the blank ocean, and herheart died within her. At last she strolled pensively toward the jungle,plaiting busily as she went, and hanging the rope round her neck as fastas she made it.
At the edge of the jungle she found Hazel in a difficulty. He had cutdown a wagon load of prickly trees, and wanted to get all this mass of_noli me tangere_ on to that wretched little cart, but had not ropeenough to keep it together. She gave him plenty of new line, and partlyby fastening a small rope to the big rope and so making the big rope areceptacle, partly by artful tying, they dragged home an incredible load.To be sure some o
f it draggled half along the ground, and came after likea peacock's tail.
He made six trips, and then the sun was low; so he began to build. Heraised a rampart of these prickly trees, a rampart three feet wide andeight feet high; but it only went round two sides and a half of thebower. So then he said he had failed again; and lay down worn out byfatigue.
Helen Rolleston, though dejected herself, could not help pitying him forhis exhaustion in her service, and for his bleeding hands. She undertookthe cooking, and urged him kindly to eat of every dish; and, when he roseto go, she thanked him with as much feeling as modesty for the greatpains he had taken to lessen those fears of hers which she saw he did notshare.
These kind words more than repaid him. He went to his little den in aglow of spirits; and the next morning went off in a violent hurry, and,for once, seemed glad to get away from her.
"Poor Mr. Hazel," said she softly, and watched him out of sight. Then shegot her plait, and went to the high point where he had barked a tree, andlooked far and wide for a sail. The air was wonderfully clear; the wholeocean seemed in sight; but all was blank.
A great awe fell upon her, and sickness of heart; and then first shebegan to fear she was out of the known world, and might die on thatisland; or never be found by the present generation. And this sickeningfear lurked in her from that hour, and led to consequences that will berelated shortly.
She did not return for a long while, and, when she did, she found Hazelhad completed her fortifications. He invited her to explore the westernpart of the island, but she declined.
"Thank you," said she; "not to-day; there is something to be done athome. I have been comparing my abode with yours, and the contrast makesme uncomfortable, if it doesn't you. Oblige me by building yourself ahouse."
"What, in an afternoon?"
"Why not? you made a cart in a forenoon. How can I tell your limits? youare quite out of my poor little depth. Well, at all events, you must roofthe boat, or something. Come, be good for once, and think a little ofyourself. There, I'll sit by and--what shall I do while you are workingto oblige me?"
"Make a fishing-net of cocoanut fiber, four feet deep. Here's plenty ofmaterial all prepared."
"Why, Mr. Hazel, you must work in your sleep."
"No; but of course I am not idle when I am alone; and luckily I have madea spade out of hard wood at odd hours, or all the afternoon would go inmaking that."
"A spade! You are going to dig a hole in the ground and call it a house.That will not do for me."
"You will see," said Hazel.
The boat lay in a little triangular creek; the surrounding earth wasalluvial clay; a sort of black cheesy mould, stiff, but kindly to workwith the spade. Hazel cut and chiseled it out at a grand rate, and,throwing it to the sides, raised by degrees two mud banks, one on eachside the boat; and at last he dug so deep that he was enabled to draw theboat another yard inland.
As Helen sat by netting and forcing a smile now and then, though sad atheart, he was on his mettle, and the mud walls he raised in four hourswere really wonderful. He squared their inner sides with the spade. Whenhe had done, the boat lay in a hollow, the walls of which, half natural,half artificial, were five feet above her gunwale, and, of course, eightfeet above her bottom, in which Hazel used to lie at night. He then madeanother little wall at the boat's stern, and laid palm-branches over all,and a few huge banana-leaves from the jungle; got a dozen large stonesout of the river, tied four yards'-lengths of Helen's grass-rope fromstone to stone, and so, passing the ropes over the roof, confined it,otherwise a sudden gust of wind might lift it.
"There," said he; "am I not as well off as you?--I, a great tough man.Abominable waste of time, I call it."
"Hum!" said Helen, doubtfully. "All this is very clever; but I doubtwhether it will keep out much rain."
"More than yours will," said Hazel, "and that is a very serious thing. Iam afraid you little know how serious. But, to-morrow, if you please, Iwill examine our resources, and lay our whole situation before you, andask your advice. As to your bugbear, let him roar his heart out, hisreign is over. Will you not come and see your wooden walls?"
He then took Helen and showed her the tremendous nature of herfortification, and assured her that no beast of prey could face it, noreven smell at it, with impunity. And as to the door, here the defense wasdouble and treble; but attached to four grass cords; two passed into theabode round each of the screw pine-trees at the east side, and were keptin their places by pegs driven into the trees.
"When you are up," said Hazel, "you pull these four cords steadily, andyour four guards will draw back right and left, with all their bayonets,and you can come out."
Helen was very much pleased with this arrangement, and did not disguiseher gratitude. She slept in peace and comfort that night. Hazel, too,profited by the mud walls and leafy roof she had compelled him to rear;for this night was colder, as it happened, than any preceding night sincethey came ashore. In the morning, Hazel saw a green turtle on the shore,which was unusual at that time of year. He ran and turned her, with somedifficulty; then brought down his cart, cut off her head with a blow,and, in due course, dragged her up the slope. She weighed two hundredpounds. He showed Miss Rolleston the enormous shell, gave her a lectureon turtles, and especially on the four species known to South Seanavigators--the trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the green turtle, and thehawks-bill, from which last, and not from any tortoise, he assured hercame the tortoise-shell of commerce.
"And now," said he, "will you not give up or suspend your reptile theory,and eat a little green turtle, the king of them all?"
"I think I must, after all that," said she; and rather relished it.
That morning he kept his word, and laid their case before her.
He said: "We are here on an island that has probably been seen anddisregarded by a few whalers, but is not known to navigators nor down onany chart. There is a wide range of vegetation, proving a delightfulclimate on the whole, and one particularly suited to you, whose lungs aredelicate. But then, comparing the beds of the rivers with the banks, atremendous fall of rain is indicated. The rainy months (in theselatitudes) are at hand, and if these rains catch us in our presentcondition, it will be a calamity. You have walls, but no roof to keep itout. I tremble when I think of it. This is my main anxiety. My next isabout our sustenance during the rains; we have no stores under cover; nofuel; no provisions but a few cocoanuts. We use two lucifer matches aday; and what is to become of us at that rate? In theory, fire can be gotby rubbing two pieces of wood together; Selkirk is said to have soobtained it from pimento wood on Juan Fernandez; but, in fact, I believethe art is confined to savages. I never met a civilized man who could doit, and I have questioned scores of voyagers. As for my weapons, theyconsist of a boat-hook and an ax; no gun, no harpoon, no bow, no lance.My tools are a blunt saw, a blunter ax, a wooden spade, two great augers,that I believe had a hand in bringing us here, but have not been any useto us since, a center-bit, two planes, a hammer, a pair of pincers, twobrad-awls, three gimlets, two scrapers, a plumb-lead and line, a largepair of scissors, and you have a small pair, two gauges, a screw-driver,five clasp-knives, a few screws and nails of various sizes, two smallbarrels, two bags, two tin bowls, two wooden bowls, and the shell of thisturtle, and that is a very good soup-tureen, only we have no meat to makesoup with."
"Well, sir," said Miss Rolleston, resignedly, "we can but kneel down anddie."
"That would be cutting the gordian knot, indeed," said Hazel. "What, dieto shirk a few difficulties? No. I propose an amendment to that. Afterthe words 'kneel down,' insert the words, 'and get up again, trusting inthat merciful Providence which has saved us so far, but expects us toexert ourselves too.'"
"It is good and pious advice," said Helen, "and let us follow it thismoment."
"Now," said Hazel, "I have three propositions to lay before you. 1st.That I hereby give up walking and take to running; time is so precious.2d. That we both work by night as well as day. 3d. That we each
tell theother our principal wants, so that there may be four eyes on the lookout,as we go, instead of two."
"I consent," said Helen; "pray what are your wants?"
"Iron, oil, salt, tar, a bellows, a pickax, planks, thread, nets, lightmatting for roofs, bricks, chimney-pots, jars, glass, animal food, somevariety of vegetable food, and so on. I'll write down the entire list foryou."
"You will be puzzled to do that without ink or paper."
"Not in the least. I shall engrave it in _alto-rilievo,_ make the wordswith pebbles on the turf just above high-water mark. Now tell me _your_wants."
"Well, I want--impossibilities."
"Enumerate them."
"What is the use?"
"It is the method we have agreed upon."
"Oh, very well, then. I want--a sponge."
"Good. What next?"
"I have broken my comb."
"Good."
"I'm glad you think so. I want--Oh, Mr. Hazel, what _is_ the use?--well,I should like a mattress to lie on."
"Hair or wool?"
"I don't care which. And it is a shame to ask you for either."
"Go on."
"I want a looking-glass."
"Great Heaven! What for?"
"Oh, never mind; I want one. And some more towels, and some soap, and afew hair-pins; and some elastic bands; and some pen, ink and paper, towrite my feelings down in this island for nobody ever to see."
When she began Hazel looked bright, but the list was like a wasp, itssting lay in its tail. However, he put a good face on it. "I'll try andget you all those things; only give me time. Do you know I am writing adictionary on a novel method."
"That means on the sand."
"No; the work is suspended for the present. But two of the definitions init are--DIFFICULTIES--things to be subdued; IMPOSSIBILITIES--things to betrampled on."
"Well, subdue mine. Trample on--a sponge for me."
"That is just what I was going to do," said he; opened a clasp-knife andjumped coolly into the river.
Helen screamed faintly, but after all the water was only up to his knees.
He soon cut a large sponge off a piece of slimy rock, and held it up toher. "There," said he, "why, there are a score of them at your very doorand you never saw them."
"Oh, excuse me, I did see them and shuddered; I thought they werereptiles; dormant and biding their time."
When he was out of the river again, she thought a little, and asked himwhether old iron would be of any use to him.
"Oh, certainly," said he; "what, do you know of any?"
"I think I saw some one day. I'll go and look for it."
She took the way of the shore; and he got his cart and spade, and wentposthaste to his clay-pit.
He made a quantity of bricks, and brought them home, and put them to dryin the sun. He also cut great pieces of the turtle, and wrapped them infresh banana-leaves, and inclosed them in clay. He then tried to make alarge narrow-necked vessel, and failed utterly; so he made the clay intoa great rude platter like a shallow milk-pan. Then he peeled the sago-logoff which he had cut his wheels, and rubbed it with turtle fat, and,using it as a form, produced two clay cylinders. These he set in the sun,with bricks round them to keep them from falling. Leaving all these todry and set before he baked them, he went off to the marsh forfern-leaves. The soil being so damp, the trees were covered with abrownish-red substance, scarce distinguishable from wool. This he hadcounted on. But he also found in the same neighborhood a longcypress-haired moss that seemed to him very promising. He made severaltrips, and raised quite a stack of fern-leaves. By this time the sun hadoperated on his thinner pottery; so he laid down six of his large thicktiles, and lighted a fire on them with dry banana-leaves, and cocoanut,etc., and such light combustibles, until he had heated and hardened theclay; then he put the ashes on one side, and swept the clay clean; thenhe put the fire on again, and made it hotter and hotter, till the claybegan to redden.
While he was thus occupied, Miss Rolleston came from the jungle radiant,carrying vegetable treasures in her apron. First she produced some goldenapples with reddish leaves.
"There," said she; "and they smell delicious."
Hazel eyed them keenly.
"You have not eaten any of them?"
"What! by myself?" said Helen.
"Thank Heaven!" said Hazel, turning pale. "These are the manchanilla, thepoison apple of the Pacific."
"Poison!" said Helen, alarmed in her turn.
"Well, I don't _know_ that they are poison; but travelers give them avery bad name. The birds never peck them; and I have read that even theleaves, falling into still water have killed the fish. You will not eatanything here till you have shown it me, will you?" said he, imploringly.
"No, no," said Helen; and sat down with her hand to her heart a minute."And I was so pleased when I found them," she said; "they reminded me ofhome. I wonder whether these are poison, too?" and she opened her apronwide, and showed him some long yellow pods, with red specks, somethinglike a very large banana.
"Ah, that is a very different affair," said Hazel, delighted; "these areplantains, and the greatest find we have made yet. The fruit is meat, thewood is thread, and the leaf is shelter and clothes. The fruit is goodraw, and better baked, as you shall see, and I believe this is the firsttime the dinner and the dish were both baked together."
He cleared the now heated hearth, put the meat and fruit on it, thenplaced his great platter over it, and heaped fire round the platter, andlight combustibles over it. While this was going on, Helen took him toher bower, and showed him three rusty iron hoops, and a piece of rottenwood with a rusty nail, and the marks where others had been. "There,"said she; "that is all I could find."
"Why, it is a treasure," cried he; "you will see. I have found something,too."
He then showed her the vegetable wool and vegetable hair he hadcollected, and told her where they grew. She owned they were wonderfulimitations, and would do as well as the real things; and, ere they haddone comparing notes, the platter and the dinner under it were bothbaked. Hazel removed the platter or milk-pan, and served the dinner init.
If Hazel was inventive, Helen was skillful and quick at any kind ofwoman's work; and the following is the result of the three weeks' workunder his direction. She had made as follows:
1. Thick mattress, stuffed with the vegetable hair and wool describedabove. The mattress was only two feet six inches wide; for Helen foundthat she never turned in bed now. She slept as she had never sleptbefore. This mattress was made with plantain-leaves sewed together withthe thread furnished by the tree itself, and doubled at the edges.
2. A long shallow net four feet deep--cocoa-fiber.
3. A great quantity of stout grass rope, and light but close matting forthe roof, and some cocoanut matting for the ground and to go under themattress. But Hazel, instructed by her, had learned to plait--ratherclumsily--and he had a hand in the matting.
Hazel in the meantime heightened his own mud banks in the center, and setup brick fireplaces with hearth and chimney; one on each side; and nowdid all the cooking; for he found the smoke from wood made Miss Rollestoncough. He also made a number of pigeon-holes in his mud walls and linedthem with clay. One of these he dried with fire, and made a pottery doorto it, and there kept the lucifer-box. He made a vast number of bricks,but did nothing with them. After several failures he made two large pots,and two great pans, that would all four bear fire under them, and in thepans he boiled sea-water till it all evaporated and left him a sedimentof salt. This was a great addition to their food, and he managed also toput by a little. But it was a slow process.
He made a huge pair of bellows, with a little assistance from MissRolleston; the spout was a sago-stick, with the pith driven out, and thesubstitute for leather was the skin of a huge eel he found stranded atthe east point.
Having got his bellows and fixed them to a post he drove into the ground,he took for his anvil a huge flint stone, and a smaller one for hammer;heated his
old iron to a white heat, and hammered it with a world oftrouble into straight lengths; and at last with a portion of it produceda long saw without teeth, but one side sharper than the other. This, byrepeated experiments of heating and immersing in water, he at lastannealed; and when he wanted to saw he blew his embers to a white heat(he kept the fire alive now night and day); heated his original sawred-hot, and soon sawed through the oleaginous woods of that island. Ifhe wanted to cut down a tree in the jungle, he put the bellows and a potof embers on his cart with other fuel, and came and lighted the fireunder the tree and soon had it down. He made his pickax in half an hour,but with his eyes rather than his hands. He found a young tree growing onthe rock, or at least on soil so shallow that the root was half aboveground and at right angles to the stem. He got this tree up, shortenedthe stem, shaped the root, shod the point with some of his late old iron;and with this primitive tool, and a thick stake baked at the point, heopened the ground to receive twelve stout uprights, and he drove themwith a tremendous mallet made upon what might be called the compendiousor Hazelian method; it was a section of a hard tree with a thick shootgrowing out of it, which shoot, being shortened, served for the handle.By these arts he at last saw a goal to his labors. Animal food, oil,pitch, ink, paper, were still wanting; but fish were abundant, andplantains and cocoanuts stored. Above all, Helen's hut was nowweather-tight. Stout horizontal bars were let into the trees, and, beingbound to the uprights, they mutually supported each other; smallerhorizontal bars at intervals kept the prickly ramparts from being drivenin by a sudden gust. The canvas walls were removed and the nails storedin a pigeon-hole, and a stout network substituted, to which huge plantainleaves were cunningly fastened with plantain thread. The roof was double:first, that extraordinary mass of spiked leaves which the four treesthrew out, then several feet under that the huge piece of matting thepair had made. This was strengthened by double strips of canvas at theedges and in the center, and by single strips in other parts. A greatmany cords and strings made of that wonderful grass were sewn to thecanvas-strengthened edges, and so it was fastened to the trees andfastened to the horizontal bars.
When this work drew close to its completion, Hazel could not disguise hissatisfaction.
But he very soon had the mortification of seeing that she for whom it wasall done did not share his complacency. A change took place in her; sheoften let her work fall, and brooded. She spoke sometimes sharply to Mr.Hazel, and sometimes with strained civility. She wandered away from himand from his labors for her comfort, and passed hours at Telegraph Point,eying the illimitable ocean. She was a riddle. All sweetness at times,but at others irritable, moody, and scarce mistress of herself. Hazel wassorry and perplexed, and often expressed a fear she was ill. The answerwas always in the negative. He did not press her, but worked on for her,hoping the mood would pass. And so it would, no doubt, if the cause hadnot remained.
Matters were still in this uncomfortable and mysterious state when Hazelput his finishing stroke to her abode.
He was in high spirits that evening, for he had made a discovery; he hadat last found time for a walk, and followed the river to its source, avery remarkable lake in a hilly basin. Near this was a pond, the water ofwhich he had tasted and found it highly bituminous; and, making furtherresearches, he had found at the bottom of a rocky ravine a very wonderfulthing--a dark resinous fluid bubbling up in quite a fountain, which,however, fell down again as it rose, and hardly any overflowed. It waslike thin pitch.
Of course in another hour he was back there with a great pot, and halffilled it. It was not like water, it did not bubble so high when some hadbeen taken; so he just took what he could get. Pursuing his researches alittle further he found a range of rocks with snowy summits apparently;but the snow was the guano of centuries. He got to the western extremityof the island, saw another deep bay or rather branch of the sea, and onthe other side of it a tongue of high land running out to sea. On thatpromontory stood a gigantic palmtree. He recognized that with a certainthrill, but was in a great hurry to get home with his pot of pitch; forit was in truth a very remarkable discovery, though not without aparallel. He could not wait till morning, so with embers and cocoanut hemade a fire in the bower, and melted his pitch, which had become nearlysolid, and proceeded to smear the inside of the matting in places, tomake it thoroughly watertight.
Helen treated the discovery at first with mortifying indifference. But hehoped she would appreciate Nature's bounty more when she saw thepractical use of this extraordinary production. He endeavored to lead herto that view. She shook her head sorrowfully. He persisted. She met himwith silence. He thought this peevish, and ungrateful to Heaven; we haveall different measures of the wonderful; and to him a fountain of pitchwas a thing to admire greatly and thank God for; he said as much.
To Helen it was nasty stuff, and who cares where it came from? Sheconveyed as much by a shrug of the shoulders, and then gave a sigh thattold her mind was far away.
He was a little mortified, and showed it. One word led to another, and atlast what had been long fermenting came out.
"Mr. Hazel," said she, "you and I are at cross purposes. You mean to livehere. I do not."
Hazel left off working, and looked greatly perplexed; the attack was sosudden in its form, though it had been a long time threatening. He foundnothing to say, and she was impatient now to speak her mind, so shereplied to his look.
"You are making yourself at home here. You are contented. Contented? Youare _happy_ in this horrible prison."
"And why not?" said Hazel. But he looked rather guilty. "Here are notraitors; no murderers. The animals are my friends, and the one humanbeing I see makes me better to look at her."
"Mr. Hazel, I am in a state of mind, that romantic nonsense jars on me.Be honest with me, and talk to me like a man. I say that you beam allover with happiness and content, and that you-- Now answer me onequestion; why have you never lighted the bonfire on Telegraph Point?"
"Indeed I don't know," said he, submissively. "I have been so occupied."
"You have, and how? Not in trying to deliver us both from this dreadfulsituation, but to reconcile me to it. Yes, sir, under pretense (that is aharsh word, but I can't help it) of keeping out the rain. Your rain is a_bugbear;_ it never rains, it never will rain. You are killing yourselfalmost to make me comfortable in this place. Comfortable?" She began totremble all over with excitement long restrained. "And do you reallysuppose you can make me live on like this, by building me a nice hut. Doyou think I am all body and no soul, that shelter and warmth and enoughto eat can keep my heart from breaking, and my cheeks from blushing nightand day? When I wake in the morning I find myself blushing to my fingers'ends." Then she walked away from him. Then she walked back. "Oh, my dearfather, why did I ever leave you! Keep me here? make me live months andyears on this island? Have you sisters? Have you a mother? Ask yourself,is it likely? No; if you will not help me, and they don't love me enoughto come and find me and take me home, I'll go to another home withoutyour help or any man's." Then she rose suddenly to her feet. "I'll tie myclothes tight round me, and fling myself down from that point on to thesharp rocks below. I'll find a way from this place to heaven, if there'sno way from it to those I love on earth."
Then she sank down and rocked herself and sobbed hard.
The strong passion of this hitherto gentle creature quite frightened herunhappy friend, who knew more of books than women. He longed to sootheher and comfort her; but what could he say? He cried out in despair, "MyGod, can I do nothing for her?"
She turned on him like lightning. "You can do anything--everything. Youcan restore us both to our friends. You can save my life, my reason. Forthat will go first, I think. What _had_ I done? what had I _ever_ donesince I was born, to be so brought down? Was ever an English lady-- Andthen I have such an irritation on my skin, all over me. I sometimes wishthe tiger would come and tear me all to pieces; yes, all to pieces." Andwith that her white teeth clicked together convulsively. "Do?" said she,darting back t
o the point as swiftly as she had rushed away from it."Why, put down that nasty stuff; and leave off inventing fifty littletrumpery things for me, and do one great thing instead. Oh, do notfritter that great mind of yours away in painting and patching my prison;but bring it all to bear on getting me _out_ of my prison. Call sea andland to our rescue. Let them know a poor girl is here in unheard-of,unfathomable misery--here, in the middle of this awful ocean."
Hazel sighed deeply. "No ships seem to pass within sight of us," hemuttered.
"What does that matter to _you?_ You are not a common man; you are aninventor. Rouse all the powers of your mind. There must be some way.Think for me. THINK! THINK! or my blood will be on your head."
Hazel turned pale and put his head in his hands, and tried to think.
She leaned toward him with great flashing eyes of purest hazel.
The problem dropped from his lips a syllable at a time. "Todiffuse--intelligence--a hundred leagues from a fixed point--an island?"
She leaned toward him with flashing, expectant eyes.
But he groaned, and said: "That seems impossible."
"Then _trample_ on it," said she, bringing his own words against him; forshe used to remember all he said to her in the day, and ponder it atnight--"trample on it, subdue it, or never speak to me again. Ah, I am anungrateful wretch to speak so harshly to you. It is my misery, not me.Good, kind Mr. Hazel, oh, pray, pray, pray bring all the powers of thatgreat mind to bear on this one thing, and save a poor girl, to whom youhave been so kind, so considerate, so noble, so delicate, so forbearing;now save me from despair."
Hysterical sobs cut her short here, and Hazel, whose loving heart she hadalmost torn out of his body, could only falter out in a broken voice,that he would obey her. "I'll work no more for you at present," said he,"sweet as it has been. I will think instead. I will go this momentbeneath the stars and think all night."
The young woman was now leaning her head languidly back against one ofthe trees, weak as water after her passion. He cast a look of ineffablelove and pity on her, and withdrew slowly to think beneath the tranquilstars.
Love has set men hard tasks in his time. Whether this was a light one,our reader shall decide.
TO DIFFUSE INTELLIGENCE FROM A FIXED ISLAND OVER A HUNDRED LEAGUES OFOCEAN.
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