XII.
26. You would have smiled to see me sit down to dinner with my family.
There was my parrot, which I had taught to speak. My dog was grown very
old and crazy; but he sat at my right hand. Then there were my two
cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other.
Besides these, I had a tame kid or two always about the house, and
several sea-fowls whose wings I had clipped. These were my subjects.
In their society I felt myself a king. I was lord of all the land
about, as far as my eye could reach. I had a broad and wealthy domain.
Here I reigned sole master for twenty-five years. Only once did I try
to leave my island in a boat; and then I came near being carried out
into the ocean forever by an ocean current I had not noticed before.
27. When I had been on the island twenty-three years I was greatly
frightened to see a footprint in the sand. For two years after I saw no
human being; but then a large company of savages appeared in canoes.
When they had landed they built a fire and danced about it.
Presently they seemed about to make a feast on two captives they had
brought with them.
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