brought ashore as his most valued possession, and
spoken of as the gift of his deceased grandfather, "I guess Colonel
Crockett haar ken give a sorter good account of 'em. When I draws a
bead with that thaar rifle, mister, what I shoot at's as good as a gone
coon!"

"I hope you'll have plenty of practice with it then, to the advantage of
our dinner-table," replied Mr Meldrum pleasantly, preparing for the
expedition by loading carefully a double-barrelled gun which he too had
saved from amongst the various goods and chattels he had left on board
the wreck. "You can have all the rabbits I kill if you let me have the
ducks."

"That's a bargain, mister," said Mr Lathrope; "though I guess you'll
gain by the swop."

"Sure and it sames to me you're both countin' your chickens afore
they're hatched," observed the first-mate with a huge grin at his own
joke.

"You're not far wrong, Mr McCarthy," said Mr Meldrum. "I, for one,
don't expect to come back overladen with game; but of course I can't
answer for my friend here, who may be another American `Deerslayer,' for
all I can tell, though he'll find rabbits his biggest quarry on this
island."

"Sir," retorted Mr Lathrope, "I ain't goin' to let out all I ken dew,
fur a leaky sieve's gen'rally bad for holdin' water, I guess; but, you
jest wait and see what you jest see!"

"Arrah sure and we will, sorr," said Mr McCarthy, bursting into a
regular roar of laughter, in which Mr Meldrum and the others joined--
Mrs Major Negus being especially prominent in her merriment, as she
always was when anything was said to the American's disadvantage, he
being apparently her direct antipathy. "But I hope, sorr, though it
goes agin my own counthry to say it, what you bring back won't be as
much as Paddy shot at."

"You slide along with your durned brogue," was all the retort that Mr
Lathrope condescended to make to this hit. It touched him, however, on
his tenderest point, for he certainly prided himself on his proficiency
in the use of "the lethal weapon;" so, when he turned round and observed
that Master Snowball had heard the remark and was indulging in a quiet
guffaw at his expense, he rounded on him a little more sharply. "I
guess you'd better stow that, you ugly cuss!" said he menacingly; "or
else I'll soon make you rattle your ivories to another toon!" Whereupon
the darkey reduced his grin to a proper focus and endeavoured to look as
grave as he could.

This appeased Mr La