The interior of the cottage was neatly furnished, though with none of the gaudy trappings of fashion.  Everything was plain and useful.  On the side fronting the stream, which served the inmates as a highway, were two rooms,—­a library, which was also the sitting-room, and a sleeping apartment.  The library was far the most substantial and comfortable-looking room in the house, inasmuch as it was abundantly supplied with modern and classical lore.  In the middle was a large writing-desk, upon which lay sundry manuscripts, apparently the last labor of the occupant.  The books and papers were all arranged with scrupulous neatness and method.

The two rooms in the rear were the dining-room and another sleeping apartment, while the attic was occupied by the old negro and his wife,—­the property of the proprietor, and his only attendants upon the island.  Back of the house, as is the custom of the South, was a small building used as a kitchen.  Near it was another building, appropriated to the use of the cow aforesaid.

In the stream in front of the cottage, fastened to a tree on the bank, was a beautifully-modelled sail-boat, which was worthy to rank with the miniature yachts of our large cities.  She was schooner-rigged, with a small cabin forward.  Her masts, by an ingenious contrivance, could be lowered down aft, and, by means of a rope attached to the fore-top, and running through a block on the bowsprit, could be instantly restored to their original upright position.  This arrangement the owner found necessary, on account of the overhanging trees, which nearly concealed the two openings of the stream into the river.

On the night of the Chalmetta’s terrible disaster, a man wrapped in a camlet cloak left the cottage, and approached the landing-place.  In one hand he carried a glass lantern, and in the other a double-barrelled gun.  Descending the steps to the rude pier of logs, he drew the boat in-shore and seated himself in the stern-sheets.  Unloosing the stern-line, which alone held her, the boat was borne on by the rapid stream.  The helm the occupant handled with a masterly skill, and in a moment the little bark swept through the half-hid opening into the broad river.  Placing the helm amid-ships, the man went forward, and, pulling the proper line, brought the masts to their upright position.  He then inserted the iron keys which kept them in their place, and hoisted the sails.  By this time the boat had drifted to the lower extremity of the island; so, bracing her sharp up, he stood away across the river.  Tacking before he reached the swift channel, which flowed close in shore, he laid the boat’s course up the stream.  The wind was blowing fresh, and, notwithstanding the contending force of the current, the boat careened to her task, and made very good progress through the water.  While the gallant little bark pursues her way, we will introduce her skipper to the reader.