Although the island lay within six miles, we could see nothing of it against the sky, for the highest point is little more than twelve feet above the water-level. I have said that nothing was spoken as we rowed along over the dark and swelling water; but this silence did not impress me till I saw ahead of us the long low outline of the dreary island shutting out the horizon; then a sensation of sickening despair came over me. Was I to linger out a few short hours of life on that melancholy spot, and die at last exhausted and broken-hearted? "Was this to be the end of the brilliant dream I had so often revelled in?" "Ah, Con!" said I, "to play the game of life, a man must have capital to stand its losses,--its runs of evil fortune; but you are ruined with one bad deal!" "Run her in here, in this creek!" cried Halkett to the men; and the boat glided into a little bay of still water under the lee of the land, and then, after about twenty minutes' stout rowing, her keel grated on the rugged, shingly shore of Anticosti. "We cannot land you dry-shod, Con," said Halkett; "it shoals for some distance here." "No matter," said I, trying to affect an easy, jocular air, my choking throat and swelling heart made far from easy; "for me to think of wet feet would be like the felon at the drop blowing the froth off the porter because it was unwholesome!" "I 've better hopes of you than that comes to, lad!" said he; "but good-bye! good-bye!" He shook my hand with a grasp like a vice, and sat down with his back towards me; the others took a kind farewell of me; and then, shouldering my little bag of biscuit, I pressed my cap down over my eyes, and stepped into the surf. It was scarcely more than over mid-leg, but the clay-like, spongy bottom made it tiresome walking. I had only gone a few hundred yards, when a loud cheer struck me; I turned: it was the boat's crew, giving me a parting salute. I tried to answer it, but my voice failed me; the next moment they had turned the point, and I saw them no more! I now plodded wearily on, and in about half an hour reached the land; and whether from weariness, or some strange instinct of security on touching shore, I know not, but I threw myself heavily down upon the shingly stones, and slept soundly,--ay, and dreamed too! dreamed of fair lands far away, such as I have often read of in books of travels, where bright flowers and delicious fruits were growing, and where birds and insects of gaudiest colors floated past with a sweet murmuring song that made the air tremble. Who has not read "Robinson Crusoe;" and who has not imagined himself combating with some of the difficulties of his fortune, and pictured to his mind what his conduct might have been under this or that emergency?