Chapter 13

"The merry homes of England!
Around their hearths by night,
What gladsome looks of household love
Meet in the ruddy light!
There woman's voice flows forth in song,
Or childhood's tale is told,
Or lips move tunefully along
Some glorious page of old."

Mrs. Hemans.

The peak, or highest part of the island, was at its northern extremity,
and within two miles of the grove in which Mark Woolston had eaten his
dinner. Unlike most of the plain, it had no woods whatever, but rising
somewhat abruptly to a considerable elevation, it was naked of
everything but grass. On the peak itself, there was very little of the
last even, and it was obvious that it must command a full view of the
whole plain of the island, as well as of the surrounding sea, for a wide
distance. Resuming his pack, our young adventurer, greatly refreshed by
the delicious repast he had just made, left the pleasant grove in which
he had first rested, to undertake this somewhat sharp acclivity. He was
not long in effecting it, however, standing on the highest point of his
new discovery within an hour after he had commenced its ascent.

Here, Mark found all his expectations realized touching the character of
the view. The whole plain of the island, with the exceptions of the
covers made by intervening woods, lay spread before him like a map. All
its beauties, its shades, its fruits, and its verdant glades, were
placed beneath his eye, as if purposely to delight him with their
glories. A more enchanting rural scene the young man had never beheld,
the island having so much the air of cultivation and art about it, that
he expected, at each instant, to see bodies of men running across its
surface. He carried the best glass of the Rancocus with him, in all his
excursions, not knowing at what moment Providence might bring a vessel
in sight, and he had it now slung from his shoulders. With this glass,
therefore, was every part of the visible surface of the island swept, in
anxious and almost alarmed search for the abodes of inhabitants. Nothing
of this sort, however, could be discovered. The island was
unquestionably without a human being, our young man alone excepted. Nor
could he see any trace of beast, reptile, or of any animal but birds.
Creatures gifted with wings had been able to reach that little paradise;
but to all others, since it first arose from the sea, had it probably
been unapproached, if not unapproachable, until that day. It appeared to
be the very Elysium of Birds!

Mark next examined the peak itself. There was a vast deposit of very
ancient guano on it, the washings of which for ages, had doubtless
largely contributed to the great fertility of the plain below. A stream
of more size than one