Not one of them, but would have shuddered at the thought of becoming a Simon Stylites.

You might suppose that, with books and Nature to study, Karl could have made shift.

True, with such companions he might have lived a less irksome life than either of the others; but even with these to occupy him, it is doubtful whether Karl could have passed the time; for it is not very certain, that a man--knowing himself alone in the world, and for ever to be alone--would care either for the books of men or the book of Nature.
As for Caspar, the thought that their lonely existence was to be perpetual, was enough at times to send the blood rushing coldly through his veins.
The Hindoo felt the affliction as much as either of his companions in misfortune; and sighed as much for his bamboo hut on the hot plains of Hindostan, as they for their home in the far fatherland of Bavaria.
It is true their situation was not so bad as if each had been left alone by himself.

Many a poor castaway upon a desert island has been condemned to a far more unhappy fate.

They knew and acknowledged this.
Each had the other two for companions; but as they reflected thus, they could not hinder their thoughts from casting forward into the future-- perhaps not distant--when one of them might leave that valley without the aid of either rope-ladders or balloons; and then another--leaving the last of the three lonely and forlorn! With such sad reflections did they pass the evening of that day, and the morning and evening of that which followed.