side when I began to make my bed. Fortunately I had plenty of sewing to
employ myself in; for I had taken care not to waste my money by buying
ready-made clothes. The equinoctial gales came on again fiercely the day
after I had reached Sark; and I stitched away from morning till night,
trying to fix my thoughts upon my mechanical work.

When the first week was over, Tardif's mother came to me at a time when
her son was away out-of-doors, with a purse in her fingers, and by very
plain signs made me understand that it was time I paid the first
instalment of my debt to her for board and lodgings. I was anxious about
my money. No agreement had been made between us as to what I was to pay.
I laid a sovereign down upon the table, and the old woman looked at it
carefully, and with a pleased expression; but she put it in her purse,
and walked away with it, giving me no change. Not that I altogether
expected any change; they provided me with every thing I needed, and
waited upon me with very careful service; yet now I could calculate
exactly how long I should be safe in this refuge, and the calculation
gave me great uneasiness. In a few months I should find myself still in
need of refuge, but without the means of paying for it. What would
become of me then?

Very slowly the winter wore on. How shall I describe the peaceful
monotony, the dull, lonely safety of those dark days and long nights? I
had been violently tossed from a life of extreme trouble and peril into
a profound, unbroken, sleepy security. At first the sudden change
stupefied me; but after a while there came over me an uneasy
restlessness, a longing to get away from the silence and solitude, even
if it were into insecurity and danger. I began to wonder how the world
beyond the little island was going on. No news reached us from without.
Sometimes for weeks together it was impossible for an open boat to cross