My reader
must not suppose that I thought all this in the clear and methodical
manner in which I have set it down here. These thoughts did indeed pass
through my mind, but they did so in a very confused and indefinite
manner, for I was young at that time, and not much given to deep
reflections. Neither did I consider that the peace whereof I write is
not to be found in this world--at least in its perfection, although I
have since learned that by religion a man may attain to a very great
degree of it.
I have said that Peterkin walked along the sands between us. We had two
ways of walking together about our island. When we travelled through
the woods, we always did so in single file, as by this method we
advanced with greater facility, the one treading in the other's
footsteps. In such cases Jack always took the lead, Peterkin followed,
and I brought up the rear. But when we travelled along the sands, which
extended almost in an unbroken line of glistening white round the
island, we marched abreast, as we found this method more sociable, and
every way more pleasant. Jack, being the tallest, walked next the sea,
and Peterkin marched between us, as by this arrangement either of us
could talk to him or he to us, while if Jack and I happened to wish to
converse together, we could conveniently do so over Peterkin's head.
Peterkin used to say, in reference to this arrangement, that had he
been as tall as either of us, our order of march might have been the
same; for as Jack often used to scold him for letting everything we
said to him pass in at one ear and out at the other, his head could of
course form no interruption to our discourse.
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