176 CRUSOE'S ISLAND.. 



arrival in the nick of time, and his assiduous care 

 while I was sick, I became reconciled to the situ- 

 ation. 



After all, his was not an intrusive presence ; he 

 made no claim to fellowship, except through a com- 

 munity of interests ; he was grateful for my atten- 

 tion merely, happy in my presence, and delighted to 

 be of service to me. It was but natural that he 

 should look to me for the future, and I resolved 

 that he should not come to want, if it were in my 

 power to prevent it. 



After my convalescence he retired to the hut at 

 the bay every night as the trade winds blew, and ap- 

 peared again at sunrise, sometimes later, at which 

 times it would be with a string of fish which he had 

 caught from the rocks. He was not much given to 

 bathing, so he watched on the beach for sharks, while 

 I enjoyed myself in security, after the old fashion be- 

 fore 1 had been frightened by the sea monsters. He 

 took care of the other members of my family, know- 

 ing better than I what their special preferences were, 

 and they all thrived wonderfully, under his fostering 

 attention. 



Although he had passed the greater portion of his 

 latter years in the woods, yet he was full of fears and 

 superstitions. I don't think he had any fear of personal 

 violence from anything that he could see, but it was 

 of the spiritual world that he stood in awe. The 

 forest was peopled with spirits, good and bad, espe- 

 cially bad ; every old tree with hollow trunk held its 

 dryads, its " jumbies," and a score of birds were only 



