"How could you contrive to live on this island, if you had no dried
birds?"
"How?" replied I; "why very badly. I might catch fish; but there are
times in the year when you can catch no fish, they won't take bait,
neither will they when the weather is rough. Besides, I have only two
lines, and I might lose them both--then what would become of me? I
should starve."
"Well, then, you see under all circumstances, it was just as well to
plant the potatoes, for other people may come here and be in your
position."
"Yes, that is true, but we shall not be here long now, and you don't
know how glad I am to go. I want to see all the things that I have read
about in my books. I want to go to England and look for somebody; but
you don't know all that I know; some day I will tell you all--
everything. I am so tired of living here by myself--nothing to say--no
one to talk to--no one to care for, except Nero, and he can't speak. I
can't bear the idea of parting with him, though."
"Would you rather stay on the island with Nero, than go away without
him?"
"No," replied I; "go I must, but still I do not like to part with him.
He is the only friend that I ever had, that I can remember."
"When you have lived longer, and mixed more with the world, my poor boy,
you will then find how many sacrifices you will be obliged to make, much
more serious than parting with an animal that you are attached to. I
suppose you expect to be very happy if ever you get back to England?"
"Of course I do; why should I not be?" replied I; "I shall be always
happy."
The missionary's wife shook her head. "I fear not. Indeed, I think if
you live long enough, you will acknowledge that the happiest of your
days were passed on this barren rock."
"Jackson said otherwise," replied I. "He was always grieving at being
on the island, and not able to get back to England; and he told me so
many stories about England, and what is done there and what a beautiful
place it is, that I'm sure I shall like it better than being here, even
if I had somebody with me."
"Well, you are in the hands of God, and you must put your trust in him.
He will do with you as he thinks best for you--that you know, as you
read your Bible."
"No, I didn't know that," replied I. "God lives beyond the stars, a
long way off."
"Is that all you have gained by reading your Bible?" inquired she,
looking me in the face.
"No, not all," replied I; "but I do not understand a great deal that I
read; I want some one to tell me. I am so glad you came with the men in
the boat, for I never saw a woman before. I used to see somebody in my
dreams, and now I know it was a woman. It was my mother; but I have not
seen her for a long while now, and I have nobody but Nero."
"My poor boy, you have a father in heaven."
"Yes," replied I; "I know he is in heaven, and so is my mother; for
Jackson said that they were both very good."
"I mean your Heavenly Father, God. Do you not say in the Lord's Prayer,
`Our Father which art in heaven?' You must love him."
I was about to reply, when John Gough, the mate, came up, and told my
companion, that he had been speaking to the men, and they had agreed
that the day after the next they would, if the weather permitted, leave
the island; that they had examined the boat, and found it required very
little repair, and that all would be ready the next day.
"I hope that they will not overload the boat," said she.
"I fear that they will, but I must do all I can to prevent it. The cask
of rum was rather an unfortunate discovery, and we had been better
without it. Leave it they will not, so we must put out of the boat all
that we can possibly do without, for we shall be nine of us, and that
will be plenty of weight with the addition of the cask."
"You promised to take my chest, you remember," said I.
"Yes, I will do so if I possibly can; but recollect, I may not be able
to keep my promise; for now that they have the liquor, the men do not
obey me as they did before, ma'am," said the mate. "Perhaps he had
better take the best of his clothes in a bundle, in case they should
refuse to take in the chest; and I must say, that, loaded as the boat
will be, they will be much to blame if they do not refuse, for the boat
is but small for stowage, and there's all the provisions to put in her,
which will take up a deal of room."
"That is very true," replied the woman. "It will be better to leave the
chest here, for I do not think that the boat will hold it. You must not
mind your chest, my good boy, it is of no great value."
"They take my rum and all my birds, and they ought to take both me and
my chest."
"Not if it takes up too much room," replied the woman. "You cannot
expect it. The wishes of one person must give way to the wishes of
many."
"Why, they would have starved if it had not been for me," replied I,
angrily.
"That's very true, boy," replied the mate; "but you have to learn yet,
that might is right; and recollect that what you did this morning has
not made you any great favourite with them."
"What was that?" inquired my companion.
"Only that he nearly drove his knife through one of the men, that's
all," replied the mate; "English sailors ar'n't fond of knives."
He then touched his hat, and went down again to the pool, desiring me to
follow him with a kid for our share of the supper. I did so, and on my
return she asked me why I had drawn my knife upon the seaman, and I
narrated how it occurred. She pointed out to me the impropriety of what
I had done, asking me whether the Bible did not tell us we were to
forgive injuries.
"Yes," replied I; "but is it not injuries to ourselves? I did forgive
Jackson; but this was to prevent his hurting another."
"Another! Why you talk of Nero as if the animal was a rational being,
and his life of as much consequence as that of a fellow-creature. I do
not mean to say but that the man was very wrong, and that you must have
felt angry if an animal you were so fond of had been killed; but there
is a great difference between the life of an animal and that of a
fellow-creature. The animal dies, and there is an end of it; but a man
has an immortal soul, which never perishes, and nothing can excuse your
taking the life of a man, except in self-defence. Does not the
commandment say, `Thou shalt not kill?'"
She then talked to me a long while upon the subject, and fully made me
understand that I had been very wrong, and I confessed that I had been
so.