that as a boy it had gone round the world several times first. Yet I
heard her laugh unaffectedly--what angels women are!

Ten minutes later I returned with my spoil, and laid it before them.

"A piece of brown bread from the bread-fruit tree, a piece of
indiarubber from the mango tree, a chutney from the banana grove,
and an omelet from the turtle run, I missed the chutney with my
first barrel, and brought it down rather luckily with the ricochet."

"But how funny; they all look just like sticks of wood."

"That is Nature's plan of protective colouring. In the same way
apricots have often escaped with their lives by sitting in the cream
and pretending to be poached eggs."

"The same instinct of self-preservation," added Archie, "has led
many a pill called Beauchamp to pronounce its name Cholmondeley."

Simpson begged to be allowed to show us how to light a fire, and we
hadn't the heart to refuse him. It was, he said, the way they lit
fires on the veldt (and other places where they wanted fires), and
it went out the first time because the wind must have changed round
after he had begun to lay the wood. He got the draught in the right
place the next time, and for a moment we thought we should have to
take to the boats; but the captain averted a panic, and the fire was
got under. Then the kettle was put on, and of all the boiled water I
have ever tasted this was the best.

"You know," said Archie, "in Simpson the nation has lost a wonderful