Sweeten with faith and submission, Bake in earthen vessels, under a slow fire, till the vessels crack." PART II. A WEEK later, Miss Phrygia put on a pair of black gloves, a black bonnet, and a black lace veil to let down in case she should cry, and went to church to see a plain gold ring take precedence of the diamond she had pressed, and to hear the hymeneal blessing pronounced over the mist of golden hair. She had to drop her veil once or twice as she gazed at the cloud of lace and orange-blossoms before the altar, and when she could'nt help seeing the new broadcloth suit that stood beside it, she kept herself down by repeating as fast as she could, "Charity hopeth all things, endureth all things, is not easily provoked." Then she went home, put on the brightest dress she had, and went to nurse a sick neighbor who could obtain no assistance for money, and therefore must have it for love. The bright dress had almost time to fade before Miss Phrygia saw the way clear to go home again. It was a long pull, and neither she nor the invalid knew how they would have got through had it not been ⚫ for the strength and comfort of the doctor's daily visits. Six feet in height, two hundred pounds in weight, strong as a tower, firm as rock, cool as a hygrodeik, and yet when pain or discouragement called for it, quick with a brooding tenderness, more beautiful, Miss Phrygia thought, even than a woman's. Twilight in the sick room seemed lonely to Miss Phrygia, and she fell into the way of watching for a light to gleam through the elms that shaded the Doctor's house just opposite, but no light ever appeared, and she had just made up her mind that he was never at home in the evening, when she had to send for him two or three times after the stars were out, and there he was. "Oh dear!" she said, "I hope he doesn't sit there without so much as a candle lighted, thinking about those children of his that were drowned, and the wife in the insane asylum that only died a year and a half ago. He can't, or he never could come over here on a moment's call, all ready to cheer us up and be such a comfort!" This "cheering them up and being a comfort" continued until Miss Phrygia began to wonder what days at home would seem without it, when her season of duty should be ended. What the Doctor thought about losing his nurse, he did not say, but he insisted upon seeing her home, when the time came, although the moon was as large as a cart-wheel, and shining clear. As they came out, they both involuntarily glanced up at the house under the shadow of the elms. "Dark," said Miss Phrygia; "It always is." "Yes," said the Doctor, it has been for a good many years now, very dark.' "I know it," said Miss Phrygia, softly, feeling as if she ought to have on her black gloves again. "Don't you think," said the Doctor, adjusting her hand a trifle more closely to his arm, don't you think I might bring in a bright, warm light before long, if I could find it?" "Immediately!" said. Miss Phrygia. "Even," and the Doctor stooped to come as near as he could to a look under Miss Phrygia's hat,-"even if I should leave your house empty and dark to do it?" What Miss Phrygia said, or what either or both of them said after that, will never be revealed; but certain it is that when Miss Phrygia ought to have been going to sleep that night, she wasn't going to sleep at all, but saying over and over to herself: "Oh, what have I done? What have I done? How could I ever do it? What am I going to do?" The perplexity thickened and darkened, to the peril of Miss Phrygia's night, when suddenly a ray of light flashed forth upon it. "Why, of course! she said. "He isn't exactly a man, after all; he's a doctor; and that's just how I came to do it!" and with this satisfactory conclusion. in her soul, and a wonderful whirl of new sensations in her heart, Miss Phrygia turned on her pillow, and went to sleep like a kitten. The village was so astir with the news the next week, that Miss Phrygia was thankful her first walk,-leaning on an arm that wasn't her's, and yet claimed to be,came in the twilight. The shadows deepened as she wandered on, listening to a great many things the Doctor had to say, until at last, just as Miss Prygia spoke for the first time, a glowworm came in sight. "I must stop and tie up my shoe!" was what Miss Phrygia said, and whether the HALF an hour later Cyrus Smith and Harbert had returned to the encampment. The engineer merely told his companions that the land upon which fate had thrown them was an island, that the next day they would consult. Then each settled himself as well as he could to sleep, and in that rocky hole, at a height of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea, through a peaceful night, the islanders enjoyed profound repose. The next day, the 30th of March, after a hasty breakfast, which consisted solely of the roasted tragopan, the engineer proposed to climb again to the summit of the volcano, so as more attentively to survey the island upon which he and his companions were imprisoned-for life perhaps, should the island be situated at a great distance from any land or out of the course of vessels which visited the archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean. This time his companions followed him in the new exploration. They, too, wished to see the island to which they must now look for all the necessaries of life. It was about seven o'clock in the morning when Cyrus Smith, Harbert, Pencroff, Gideon Spilett and Neb quitted the encampment. No one appeared to be anxious about their situation. They had faith in themselves, doubtless, but it must be observed that the basis of this faith was not the same with Smith as with his companions. The engineer had confidence, because he felt capable of extorting from this wild country every thing necessary for the life of himself and his companions; the latter feared nothing, just because Cyrus Smith was with them. Pencroff, especially, since the incident of the relighted fire, would not have despaired for an instant, had he been on a bare rock, if only the engineer were with him. 66 Pshaw!" said he, "we left Richmond without permission from the authorities! It will be hard if we don't manage to get away some day or other from a place where certainly no one will detain us!" The engineer followed the same road as the evening before. They went round the cone by way of the plateau to the mouth' of the enormous chasm. The weather was magnificent. The sun rose in a clear sky and flooded all the eastern side of the mountain with light. The crater was reached. It was just what the engineer had made it out to be in the dark; that is to say, a vast funnel widening as it rose to a height of a thousand feet above the plateau. Below the chasm, large thick streaks of lava wound over the sides of the mountain, and thus marked the course of the eruptive matter to the lower valleys which furrowed the northern part of the island. The interior of the crater, whose inclination did not exceed thirty-five to forty degrees, presented no difficulties nor obstacles to the ascent. Traces of very ancient lava were noticeable, which probably had overflowed the summit of the cone, before this lateral chasm had opened a new way to it. Ás to the volcanic chimney which established a communication between the subterranean layers and the crater, its depth could not be calculated with the eye, for it was lost in obscurity. But there was no doubt as to the complete extinction of the volcano. Before eight o'clock Smith and his companions were assembled at the summit of the crater, on a conical mound which rose at the northern edge. "The sea, the sea everywhere!" they cried, as if their lips could not restrain the words which made islanders of them. The sea indeed formed an immense circular sheet of water all around them. Perhaps, on climbing again to the summit of the cone, Cyrus Smith had entertained a hope of discovering some coast, some island shore, which he had not been able to perceive in the dark the evening before. But nothing appeared on the farthest verge of the horizon, that is to say, over a radius of more than fifty miles. No land in sight! Not a sail! Over all this immense space the ocean alone was visible, the island occupying the center of a circumference which appeared to be infinite. The engineer and his companions, surveyed in silence for some minutes every point of the ocean, examining it to its most extreme limits. Even Pencroff, who possessed a marvelous power of sight, saw nothing; and certainly if there had been land at the horizon, if it appeared only as an indistinct vapor, the sailor would undoubtedly have found it out, for nature seemed to have given him a telescopic power of vision. From the ocean they turned to the island of which they had a full view. The first question was put by Gideon Spilett. "About how large is this island?" It certainly appeared very small in the midst of the immense ocean. Cyrus Smith reflected a few minutes; he attentively observed the perimeter of the island, taking into consideration the height at which he was placed. 66 My friends," said he, "I do not think I am mistaken in giving to the shore of the island a circumference of more than a hundred miles." "And consequently an area of—” "That is difficult to estimate," replied the engineer," for it is so uneven." If Cyrus Smith had not been mistaken in his calculation, the island was almost as large as Malta or Zante, in the Mediterranean, but it was at the same time much more irregular and had fewer capes, promontories, points, bays and creeks. Its strange form caught the eye, and when Gideon Spilett, at the engineer's suggestion, had drawn the outline, they found that it resembled some fantastic animal, some monstrous leviathan, which lay sleeping on the surface of the Pacific. This was in fact the exact shape of the island, which it is of consequence to know, and a tolerably correct map of it was immediately drawn by the reporter. The east part of the shore, where the castaways had landed, formed a wide bay, terminated by a sharp cape, which had been concealed from Pencroff by a high point on his first exploration. At the north-east two other capes closed the bay, and between them ran a narrow gulf, which looked like the half-open jaws of a formidable dog-fish. From the north-east to the south-west the coast was rounded, like the flattened cranium of an animal, rising again and forming a sort of protuberance which did not give any particular shape to this part of the island, the center of which was occupied by the volcano. From this point the shore ran pretty regularly north and south, broken at twothirds of its perimeter by a narrow creek, from which it ended in a long strip, which resembled the tail of a gigantic alligator. This tail formed a regular peninsula, which stretched more than thirty miles into the sea, reckoning from the cape south-east of the island, already mentioned; it curled round, making an open roadstead, which marked out the lower shore of this strangely-formed land. At the narrowest part, that is to say, between the Chimneys and the creek on the western shore, which corresponded to it in latitude, the island only measured ten miles; but its greatest length, from the jaws at the north-east to the extremity of the tail on the south-west, was not less than thirty miles. As to the interior of the island, its general aspect was very woody throughout the southern part, from the mountain to the shore, and arid and sandy in the northern part. Between the volcano and the east coast Cyrus Smith and his companions were surprised to see a lake, bordered with green trees, the existence of which they had not suspected. Seen from this height, the lake appeared to be on the same level as the ocean, but, on reflection, the engineer explained to his companions that the altitude of this little sheet of water must be about three hundred feet. because the plateau, which was its basin, was but a prolongation of the coast. "Is it a fresh-water lake?" asked Pencroff. "Certainly," replied the engineer, "for it must be fed by the water which flows from the mountain." "I see a little river running into it," said Harbert, pointing out a narrow stream, which evidently had its source somewhere in the west. "Yes," said Smith; "and since this stream feeds the lake, there is, most probably, an outlet on the side near the sea, by which the surplus water escapes. We shall see that on our return." the valleys, and the interior of the volcanic chasms. One important question remained to be solved, and the answer would have a great effect upon the future of the cast aways: Was the island inhabited ? It was the reporter who put this question, and the answer seemed to be in the negative, after the close examination they had just made. Nowhere could the work of a human hand be perceived. Not a group of huts, not a solitary cabin, not a fishery on the shore. No smoke curling in the air betrayed the presence of man. It is true, a distance of nearly thirty miles separated the observers from the extreme points of the tail which extended to the south-west, and it would have been difficult, even for Pencroff's eyes, to discover a habitation there. Neither could the curtain of verdure, which covered three-quarters of the island, be raised to see if it did not shelter some straggling village. But, in general, islanders live on the shores of the narrow spaces which emerge above the waters of the Pacific, and the shore appeared to be an absolute desert. This little, winding water-course and the river already mentioned constituted the water system of the island, at least as it was displayed to the eyes of the explorers. However, it was possible that other rivers ran towards the sea, under the masses of trees which covered two-thirds of the island, forming an immense forest. It might even be inferred that such was the case, so rich did this region appear in the most magnificent specimens of the flora of the temperate zones. There was no indication of running water in the north, though, perhaps, there might be stagnant Until a more complete exploration, it water among the marshes in the north-east; might be admitted that the island was unbut that was all, except the downs, sand inhabited. But was it frequented, at least and aridity which contrasted so strongly occasionally, by the natives of neighborwith the luxuriant vegetation of the resting islands? It was difficult to reply to of the island. Every this question. No land appeared within a The volcano did not occupy the central radius of fifty miles. But fifty miles could part; it rose, on the contrary, in the north- be easily crossed, either by Malay_proas western region, and seemed to mark the or by the large Polynesian canoes. boundary of the two zones. At the thing depended on the position of the south-west, the south, and the south, and the south-island-its isolation in the Pacific, or east the nearer portions of the spurs were hidden under masses of verdure. At the north, on the contrary, one could follow their ramifications, which died away on the sandy plains. It was on this side that, at the time when the mountain was in a state of eruption, the discharge had worn away a passage, and a large heap of lava had spread to the narrow jaw which formed the north-eastern gulf. Cyrus Smith and his companions remained about an hour at the top of the mountain. The island was displayed under their eyes, like a relief map with different tints, green for the forests, yellow for the sand, blue for the water. They viewed it in its tout ensemble, nothing being concealed but the ground hidden by verdure, the hollows of its proximity to archipelagoes. Would Cyrus Smith be able to find out their latitude and longitude without instruments? It would be difficult. Meantime, it was best to take precautions against a possible descent of neighboring natives. The exploration of the island was finished, its shape determined, its features made out, its extent calculated, and the water and mountain systems ascertained. The disposition of the forests and plains had been marked in a general way on the reporter's plan. They had now only to descend the mountain slopes again, and explore the soil, with the triple design of discovering its mineral, vegetable, and animal resources. But before giving his companions the signal for departure, Cyrus Smith said to them in a calm, grave voice: 'Here, my friends, is the small corner of land upon which the hand of the Almighty has thrown us. We are going to live here -a long time, perhaps. Perhaps, too, unexpected help will arrive, if some ship should chance to pass. I say chance, because this is an unimportant island; there is not even a port in which ships could anchor, and it is to be feared that it is situated out of the route usually followed, that is to say, too much to the south for the ships which frequent the archipelagos of the Pacific, and too much to the north for those that go to Australia by doubling Cape Horn. I wish to hide nothing of our position. from you. "And you are right, my dear Cyrus," replied the reporter, with animation. "You have to deal with men. They have confidence in you, and you can depend upon them. Is it not so, my friends?" "I will obey you in everything, Captain," said Harbert, seizing the engineer's hand. "My master always, and everywhere!" cried Neb. "As for me," said the sailor, "if I ever grumble at work, my name's not Jack Pencroff, and if you like, Captain, we will make a little America of this island! We will build towns, establish railways, and start telegraphs, and one fine day, when it is quite changed, quite put in order and quite civilized, we will go and offer it to the government of the Union. Only, I ask one thing." "What is that?" said the reporter. "It is, that we do not consider ourselves castaways, but colonists, who have come here to settle." VOL. VIII.-37 Smith could not help smiling, and the sailor's idea was adopted. Then he thanked his companions, and added that he would rely on their energy and on the aid of Heaven. "Well, now let us set off to the Chimneys!" cried Pencroff. "One minute, my friends," said the engineer. "It seems to me it would be a good thing to give a name to this island, as well as to the capes, promontories, and water-courses which we can see." "Very good," said the reporter. "In the future, that will simplify the instructions which we shall have to give and follow." "Indeed," said the sailor, "already it is something to be able to say where one is |