Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/192

 there, it held pretty well together. At breakfast, which was served according to regulation, they discussed their situation.

"You see," said Sam, "this may turn out to be a small barren island, in which case we shall have to leave it and trust to falling in with some vessel; or it may be inhabited by savages or pirates, in which case we shall have to leave it from prudential motives, if they will allow us to do so. In any case, we won't begin by being extravagant with the provisions to-day."

As they drew near to the island, the probability of its being inhabited became greater, because, although solitary, and, according to Sam's amateur calculations, far remote from other lands, it presented a bold and fertile aspect. It was not, indeed, large in circumference, but it rose to a considerable height, and was covered with rich vegetation, above which waved numerous groups of the cocoa-nut palm. A band of light yellow sand fringed the shore, on which the waves roiled in a still lighter fringe of foam, while two or three indentations seemed to indicate the existence of creeks or openings into the interior. With eager gaze the castaways watched this island as they slowly approached it—the minuter beauties of rock and dell and leafy copse brightening into view as the sun mounted the clear blue sky.

"What I have thought or dreamed of sometimes,