which had lost half of one leg, and two chairs without backs, composed the entire furniture of this apartment. A rude shelf was fastened against the wall between two of the windows, upon which a number of earthenware dishes were arranged. A smaller apartment was partitioned off with rough boards from the first, with which it communicated by a simple opening or doorway, without any door.

In this second room were several low wooden frames, probably designed as bedsteads, ranged side by side, and a large chest, stained or painted blue. In one corner stood a small square writing-table of some dark-coloured wood, with several drawers. In another corner Max discovered a rusty gridiron and saucepan, a small iron pot and a toasting-fork, upon which he pounced with the eagerness of a miser lighting upon hidden treasures. The chest was empty, but a small box or till, fixed in one end of it, contained a number of phials, a cork-screw, a tin cannister, and a French Bible, upon the last of which Arthur seized with as much avidity as Max had evinced in appropriating the cooking utensils. Charlie pulled open the drawers of the little writing-table, and found a bunch of quills, a spool of green ribbon, a file of invoices and bills of lading, a bottle of ink, and about half a ream of letter-paper, which he declared was just what was wanted for the purpose of writing "our story."

The place had a gloomy and deserted air, and we unanimously agreed that neither the dwelling nor its location was nearly as pleasant as our own at Castle Hill.

There were several articles which we wished to carry away with us, but we concluded to postpone this until a future visit. Max, however, having once laid hold of the gridiron, seemed extremely loath to part with it again, and finally yielding to the irresistible fascination which it evidently had for him, he threw it over his shoulder as we started on our return, and brought it away with him.

Having been fastidiously purified by repeated scourings and ablutions, it proved very useful in preparing our meals, of which fresh fish frequently formed the principal part.

In the evening, as we sat at the terraced top of Castle Hill, Charlie took seriously in hand the important business of finding appropriate names for the discoveries of the day.

The valley beyond the grove of bread-fruit he concluded to call "Echo Vale." For the lake itself quite a variety of names was suggested, none of which, however, seemed to be entirely satisfactory. After puzzling over the subject a long while without any result, and working himself into quite a nervous and excited state, a happy thought seemed all at once to suggest itself, and turning to Arthur, he eagerly demanded what was "the most beautiful lake in all the world?"

"Loch Katrine, to be sure," said Browne; 66 some would say Loch Lomond, but that is the second."

“Lake George!” cried Max decisively.

"Lake Como, in Switzerland, is said to be, by the tourists and the poets," answered Arthur, to whom the question had been more particularly addressed.

The last name seemed to please Charlie exceedingly, and after repeating it several times with approbation, he inquired of Arthur "what it was that Olla, in the cannibal story, called her pet wood-pigeon?"

"Lai-evi," answered Arthur.

"And you said that meant Little Captive," pursued Charlie, with great animation; "and the "Lai' means 'little,' I suppose?"

"Yes, 'Lai' is the diminutive."

"Well, then, I have it at last! Our lake, though so small, is

"Quite a Como for its size," interrupted Max," and so it shall be called

"Lake Laicomo!" cried Charlie exultingly.

I am thus particular in mentioning these names, chiefly for the benefit of all persons engaged in the preparation of new editions of the school geographies and atlases; and I take this opportunity, at Charlie's especial request, to call their attention to the matter, in order that our island and its geographical divisions may be accurately laid down and described in future works of the kind referred to.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE REMOVAL.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE RAINY SEASON-GOING INTO WINTER QUARTERS-" MONSIEUR PAUL"-THE PATRIARCH OF

THE LAKE.

"Now Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad, with all his gloomy train
Of vapours, clouds, and storms."

We had now been several months upon the island, and notwithstanding our constant watchfulness, we had not, during all this time, seen a single sail. Of the vast multitudes of vessels that track the ocean in every direction, not one had visited the solitary sea that lay within the boundaries of our horizon; or if any had crossed the verge of the wide circle, her coming and departure had been alike unobserved by us.

And now, by a variety of indications, it was manifest that the winter of the tropical year was at hand. The steady casterly breezes, which, with occasional variations

of south-easterly, had hitherto prevailed, were succeeded by violent and fickle winds, blowing sometimes from a dozen different and opposite points of the compass in the course of twenty-four hours. The brief and sudden showers which we had had at intervals for some time past gradually became more heavy and frequent. At length, one calm sultry day, about noon, a storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, came up, with so little previous notice, that although Arthur and myself were at the time scarcely two hundred yards from the house, we were thoroughly drenched before we could reach it. And this proved to be no mere thunder-shower, such as we had already been two or three times surprised by. Scarcely had we got under shelter, when the air grew so dark, that it would really have been difficult to see one's way through the grove. I had never before witnessed anything like this, and I began to fear that we were going to be visited by one of those terrible hurricanes which sometimes devastate tropical countries. The wind soon commenced blowing with such violence, that the largest and sturdiest of the old trees that surrounded our house bent and swayed before its fury. Their tops lashed each other overhead, and filled the air with clouds of leaves, whirled away upon the tempest. Large boughs were twisted off like twigs, and strewed the ground in every direction. The creaking and groaning of the trees, the loud flapping of the palm-leaves, like that of a sail loose in the wind, the howling and shrieking of the gale, as it burst in quick, fierce gusts through the forest, with the almost total darkness that enveloped us, were truly appalling.

The strength of our dwelling was now put to a severer test than its builders had ever anticipated, and it yielded to the force of the wind, so that at times the side-posts stood at an angle of torty-five degrees with the floor; had they been of any material less tough and pliant than the hibiscus, they must have snapped off in an instant. It was

well, too, that they had been deeply and firmly planted in the ground, or the whole fabric would have been lifted bodily into the air, and swept away like a withered leaf. As it was, though wrenched and twisted woefully, it stood firm. The thatch, of which Arthur was so proud, and which had hitherto been storm-proof, now opened in many places, and a dozen little streams began to pour in upon us.

Before night, the sound of running waters without was like that of a great spring freshet. Cataracts were leaping on every side from the edges of the height, and a raging and turbid torrent filled the gully that separated the forest from Castle Hill.

The tempest continued for nearly forty-eight hours. By the time it was over, we had quite come to the conclusion that if this was to be regarded as a foretaste and specimen of what we had to expect during the rainy season, it would never do to think of remaining in our present habitation. Considering this as a timely warning, we resolved, after a formal consultation, to put the deserted cabin by the lake forthwith into tenantable condition, so as to be ready to take up our winter-quarters there if we should find it expedient to do so.

On the first fine day we commenced carrying this resolution into effect, knowing that we had now but little time to lose. The cabin had originally been built substantially, and with a good deal of skill, and it had suffered but little from decay. We had, in fact, nothing to do in the way of repairing it except to rehang the door, which was loose, and partially unhinged, and to mend the roof, which leaked in one or two places. We then cleared the yard from the rank weeds by which it was overgrown, aired the house thoroughly, by setting door and windows wide open for a day or two, and swept out both apartments with cocoanut brooms.

We next, under Arthur's direction, commenced laying