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Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one which I did not carry out.
我一生曾立下過不少的志愿，件件都能辦到。
But it was weary years before my time came.
可是在等待這時機的幾年里，我卻受盡了千辛萬苦。
I have told you that I had picked up something of medicine.
我告訴過你們，我學得了一些醫藥上的知識。
One day when Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a little Andaman Islander was picked up by a convict-gang in the woods.
有一天，薩莫吞醫生因發高燒臥病在床，有一個安達曼群島的小生番被到樹林中工作的囚犯帶了回來。
He was sick to death and had gone to a lonely place to die.
他因為病重，想找到一個幽靜的地方等死，
I took him in hand, though he was as venomous as a young snake,
雖然知道生番生性狠毒似蛇，可是我還是護理了他兩個月，
and after a couple of months I got him all right and able to walk.
他終于漸漸恢復了健康又能走路了。
He took a kind of fancy to me then, and would hardly go back to his woods, but was always hanging about my hut.
他對我產生了感情，很難得回樹林里去一次，終日守在我的茅屋里邊。
I learned a little of his lingo from him, and this made him all the fonder of me.
我又向他學會了一些他的土話，于是他對我就更加敬愛了。
Tonga--for that was his name--was a fine boatman and owned a big, roomy canoe of his own.
他的名字叫做童格，是一個精練的船夫，并且有一只很大的獨木船。
When I found that he was devoted to me and would do anything to serve me,
自從我發現他對于我的忠誠并且愿意為我作任何事情以后，
I saw my chance of escape. I talked it over with him.
我終于找到了逃走的機會，我把這個計劃和他說了，
He was to bring his boat round on a certain night to an old wharf which was never guarded, and there he was to pick me up.
我叫他在一天夜晚把船劃到一個無人守衛的碼頭去接我上船，
I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams, cocoanuts, and sweet potatoes.
還叫他準備幾平淡水，許多的薯蕷、椰子和甜薯。
He was staunch and true, was little Tonga. No man ever had a more faithful mate.
這個小童格真是忠誠可靠，再沒有比他更忠實的同伴了，
At the night named he had his boat at the wharf.
那天晚上他果然把船劃到了碼頭下面。
