"

"Oh yes, papa," answered that young lady. "Pussy killed four not long
ago, and brought them purring, one after another, to Kate and me--as if
to show us what she had done! Besides, I'm sure I heard them squeaking
behind the boxes last night."

Florry's statement was true enough, for on hunting amongst the stores it
was found that the corners of the bags containing the small supply of
biscuits they had left had been nibbled through and their contents
scattered on the ground; in addition to which there were other evidences
of the presence of the little depredators. The mice must have been
originally introduced into the island by some whaling ship; and, they
had evidently multiplied considerably since then, for they were now very
numerous and puss would have all her work cut out for her in keeping
them down.

In spite of the mouse diversion, Mr Meldrum did not forget what he had
said about the "Kerguelen cabbage."

Instituting a search next day, it was not long before he came across the
plant in a little hollow, close to the fresh-water tarn adjoining their
hut and just peeping out from a thin covering of half-melted snow that
lay on the ground.

This peculiar vegetable production, which was first noticed by Captain
Cook a century ago and is indigenous to the island, is termed by
botanists the _Pringlea antiscorbutica_, and belongs to the order of
plants classed as the _Cruciferae_, which embraces the common cabbage of
every household garden, the radish, and the horse-radish--to the latter
of which the Kerguelen cabbage is the most closely allied, on account of
its hot pungent taste when eaten raw as well as from its habit and mode
of growth.

Mr Meldrum could not have failed to discover and recognise it at first
sight from the description he already had, for the leaves of the plant
grew thick about the root and put forth an upright stem, some two to
three feet high, from which proceeded shoots, like broccoli sprouts on
an enlarged scale, the outer petal-like leaves of which were six to
eight inches long, and of a dark olive-green hue and fleshy nature,
rounded and ciliated at the margin; while the inner leaves were of a
paler green that approximated to yellow in the centre, where they were
crumpled together, exactly like as in the "heart" of the well-known
cabbage, to which the vegetable bore a very close likeness on being
first seen.

"Begorrah, it's a cabbage, all the worruld over!" exclaimed the first
m