on and not the mainland, as I had hoped at first. Seth, she told me,
was far away to the eastward, and if the woodmen had gone by in their
ships they would have passed round to the north-west of where we were.

I spent an hour or two with that amiable individual, and, it is to be
hoped, sustained the character of a spiritual visitant with considerable
dignity. In one particular at least, that, namely, of appetite, I did
honour to my supposed source, and as my entertainer would not hear of
payment in material kind, all I could do was to show her some conjuring
tricks, which greatly increased her belief in my supernatural origin,
and to teach her some new hitches and knots, using her fishing-line
as a means of illustration, a demonstration which called from her the
natural observation that we must be good sailors "up aloft" since we
knew so much about cordage, then we parted.

She had seen nothing of the woodmen, though she had heard they had been
to Seth and thought, from some niceties of geographical calculation which
I could not follow, they would have crossed to the north, as just stated,
of her island. There she told me, with much surprise at my desire for the
information, how I might, by following the forest track to the westward
coast, make my way to a fishing village, where they would give me a canoe
and direct me, since such was my extraordinary wish, to the place where,
if anywhere, the wild men had touched on their way home.

She filled my wallet with dried honey-cakes and my mouth with sugar plums
from her little store, then down on her knees went that poor waif of
a worn-out civilisation and kissed my hands in humble farewell, and I,
blushing to be so saluted, and after all but a sailor, got her by the
rosy fingers and lifted her up shoulder high, and getting one hand under
her chin and the other behind her head kissed her twice upon her pretty