THE. SHIPWRECK, 283

she never caught sight of the cottage or the temple,
but fancied that she had been thrown ashore at some
uninhabited place.

Things, however, were not as shack as she feared.
Ampelisca had not-been drowned, and, though she
had missed her friend on first getting to land, had
afterwards wandered along the shore in the same
direction, looking for her, and very unhappy because
she could not find her.

“JT am sure I don’t want to live if everything is
going to be wretched,”.she said to herself. “ My
darling Palestra is lost, and there is nobody. to ask
whether they have seen her. I shouldn’t have thought
that there was such a lonely place in all the world as
this seems to be.”

She said this out loud, almost without knowing it,
and Paleestra, who was not far off, caught the sound.
“Ts that some one speaking ?” she said.

Ampelisca heard her, and cried, ‘“ Who's there?”

“Tt sounds like a woman’s voice,” said Palzestra.

“Tt must be a woman,” answered the other.

“Ts it you, Ampelisca ?”’

“Ts it you, Palzestra?”’

There was:a sort of thicket between them, and the
girls did not find it easy to get through it. At last
they managed it, and rushed into each other’s arms,
and kissed each other.

“Now, Palestra dear, what are we to do?” said
Ampelisca. Palzestra always took the lead.