CHAPTER II. 



LIFE ON A CORAL ISLAND. 



To me it has always seemed rather remarkable how 

 almost everyone is more or less interested in small islands, 

 especially if they are far enough away and only scantily 

 populated. If only one man or one family lives on them 

 the interest in them seems to be even greater still. It 

 appears strange that we should be so naturally attracted 

 to the idea ; because life must necessarily proceed, under 

 such circumstances, with the least possible amount of 

 incident and change ; and if the truth must be told, we 

 should most of us be extremely bored after a few months 

 of such isolation. 



Yet, although there was, in the ordinary way of speaking, 

 really very little "to do " on Swan Island, the three 

 weeks we were there, passed like a flash — perhaps one 

 might almost say like a pleasant dream. 



In a httle community of this kind, so far away from 

 the ordinary distractions of the restless world, the most 

 prosaic subjects and occupations seem to have an 

 exaggerated interest. The enlargement of the jetty, for 

 instance, was an event. Its daily progress and the Uttle 

 problems in connection with its structure seemed matters 

 of absorbing interest. One day a ship called with some 

 cement to be used in its construction. Its arrival had 

 been for long anxiously awaited. Now, at last ! the great 

 work could be proceeded with. Everyone lent a hand 

 in hauling up the sacks from the landing-place. If it 

 had been our own jetty we could not have felt a keener 



