Mark now made a voyage to Loam Island, in quest of a cargo, using the raft, and towing the dingui.  It was on this occasion that our young man was made to feel how much he had lost, in the way of labour, in being deprived of the assistance of Bob.  He succeeded in loading his raft, however, and was just about to sail for home again, when it occurred to him that possibly the seeds and roots of the asparagus he had put into a corner of the deposit might have come to something.  Sure enough, on going to the spot, Mark found that the seed had taken well, and hundreds of young plants were growing flourishingly, while plants fit to eat had pushed their tops through the loam, from the roots.  This was an important discovery, asparagus being a vegetable of which Mark was exceedingly fond, and one easily cultivated.  In that climate, and in a soil sufficiently rich, it might be made to send up new shoots the entire year; and there was little fear of scurvy so long as he could obtain plenty of this plant to eat.  The melons and other vegetables, however, had removed all Mark’s dread of that formidable disease; more especially as he had now eggs, chickens, and fresh fish, the latter in quantities that were almost oppressive.  In a word, the means of subsistence now gave the young man no concern whatever.  When he first found himself on a barren rock, indeed, the idea had almost struck terror into his mind; but, now that he had ascertained that his crater could be cultivated, and promised, like most other extinct volcanoes, unbounded fertility, he could no longer apprehend a disease which is commonly owing to salted provisions.

When Mark found his health completely re-established, he sat down and drew up a regular plan of dividing his time between work, contemplation, and amusement.  Fortunately, perhaps, for one who lived in a climate where vegetation was so luxuriant when it could be produced at all, work was pressed into his service as an amusement.  Of the last, there was certainly very little, in the common acceptation of the word; but our hermit was not without it altogether.  He studied the habits of the sea-birds that congregated in thousands around so many of the rocks of the Reef, though so few scarce ever ventured on the crater island.  He made voyages to and fro, usually connecting business with pleasure.  Taking favourable times for such purposes, he floated several cargoes of loam to the Reef, as well as two enormous rafts of sea-weed.  Mark was quite a month in getting these materials into his compost heap, which he intended should lie in a pile during the winter, in order that it might be ready for spading in the spring.  We use these terms by way of distinguishing the seasons, though of winter, strictly speaking, there was none.  Of the two, the grass grew better at mid-winter than at mid-summer, the absence of the burning heat of the last being favourable to its growth.  As the season advanced, Mark saw his grass very sensibly