stools, and we had Poll to talk to us. Now for a word or two as
to the dress in which I made a tour round the isle. I could but
think how droll it would look in the streets of the town in which
I was born. I wore a high cap of goat's skin, with a flap that
hung, down, to keep the sun and rain from my neck, a coat made
from the skin of a goat too, the skirts of which came down to my
hips, and the same on my legs, with no shoes, but flaps of the
fur round my shins. I had a broad belt of the same round my
waist, which drew on with two thongs; and from it, on my right
side, hung a saw and an axe; and on my left side a pouch for the
shot. My beard had not been cut since I came here. But no more
need be said of my looks, for there were few to see me. A strange
sight was now in store for me, which was to change the whole
course of my life in the isle.

One day at noon, while on a stroll down to a part of the shore
that was new to me, what should I see on the sand but the print
of a man's foot! I felt as if I was bound by a spell, and could
not stir from, the spot.

Bye-and-bye, I stole a look round me, but no one was in sight,
What could this mean? I went three or four times to look at it.
There it was--the print of a man's foot; toes, heel, and all the
parts of a foot. How could it have come there?

My head swam with fear; and as I left the spot, I made two or
three steps, and then took a look round me; then two steps more,
and did the same thing. I took fright at the stump of an old
tree, and ran to my house, as if for my life. How could aught in
the shape of a man come to that shore, and I not know it? Where