"Just listen to this!" broke in Aunt Amanda. She had been studying the map all this time, and she was holding it in her hands. She was much excited. "I've just made out all this handwriting at the bottom of the map, and I'll read it to you. Do you want to hear it?" Her voice shook and her hands trembled. Everybody except the Churchwarden begged her to go on. "Oh! do you think it could be true? If it only could! Oh, if it _could_ only be true!" "Maybe if you'd read it, Aunt Amanda----" said Toby. "Yes, yes, I will," said she, all of a twitter. "I'll read it. Don't hurry me. This is what it says. If it could only be true! 'Correction Island: By dead Reckoning, latitude 12 deg. 32' 14" N., longitude 61 deg. 45' 13" W.,' whatever that means. But I'll read it to you just as it's written. It's a queer kind of language--Anyway, this is what it says: "'Lately discovered by me, Reuben Higginson, Master Mariner, Brig Cotton Mather: New Bedford. "'Notify Elizabeth Higginson, Spinster: or Else the acknowledged Elder of the Society of Friends: New Bedford. "'Now off course in heavy gale on return Voyage to fetch my Sister aforesaid to Correction Island with as Many others as are Minded to come. "'Leaking badly below line: pumps Given over: Water mounting in hold: decks Awash: Both masts gone By the board: whale-oil, no use: Down with all hands in another Hour. "'This Map shall be cast Overboard in a stout Bottel as we go down, with a Paper of directions how to Gain correction in the Island.'" "Where's the paper of directions?" said Toby. "It ain't here," said Aunt Amanda. "I suppose Captain Higginson lost it, or else he didn't have time to put it in the bottle. Anyway, this is what the writing on the map says: "'Let him that Finds the Bottel remember these Mariners: Also, let him take heed to Search out the Island diligently. "'For this Island'--Listen to what it says now," said Aunt Amanda, trembling with excitement. "Oh, do you suppose it could really be true? And yet this Reuben Higginson was a good Quaker captain, I'm sure, and I don't believe he would say what wasn't true, and especially when he was on his way home to get his own sister----" "Why don't you read it, instead of talking about it?" said Toby. "I would, if you'd let me," said Aunt Amanda. "Here's what it says: "'For this Island is Refuge to such as be afflicted: And in this Island shall be Corrected'--oh! listen to this! I wouldn't believe it from anybody but Reuben Higginson--'shall be Corrected whatever Errors, Disappointments, Miscarriages, Faylures, Preventions, and the like, this mortal Life may have afflicted Any withal: Wherefore I have called it Correction Island. "'There be Perils enough in coming at Compleat Correction: But let Courage halt not By the way, so shall he Arrive presently.