Avatea was the last to take leave of us, and we experienced a
feeling of real sorrow when she approached to bid us farewell. Besides
her modest air and gentle manners, she was the only one of the party
who exhibited the smallest sign of regret at parting from us. Going up
to Jack, she put out her flat little nose to be rubbed, and thereafter
paid the same compliment to Peterkin and me.
An hour later the canoe was out of sight, and we, with an indefinable
feeling of sadness creeping round our hearts, were seated in silence
beneath the shadow of our bower, meditating on the wonderful events of
the last few days.
Chapter XXI
Sagacious and moral remarks in regard to life--A sail!--An
unexpected salute--The end of the black cat--A terrible dive--An
incautious proceeding and a frightful catastrophe.
Life is a strange compound. Peterkin used to say of it that it beat a
druggist's shop all to sticks; for whereas the first is a compound of
good and bad, the other is a horrible compound of all that is utterly
detestable. And indeed the more I consider it the more I am struck with
the strange mixture of good and evil that exists not only in the
material earth but in our own natures. In our own Coral Island we had
experienced every variety of good that a bountiful Creator could heap
on us. Yet on the night of the storm we had seen how almost, in our
case--and altogether, no doubt, in the case of others less fortunate
--all this good might be swept away for ever.
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