aughters and some aunts that he had, on his father's side.

The Treasure dropped in too. He knew Podbury well, and Podbury regarded
him as an authority on punch. The liquid was presently placed before us.
Podbury showed pleasure when I said what I thought about it; but he did
not feel quite contented until he had expert's opinion.

"Magnificent!" the Treasure presently declared; "why it's equal to the
1890 brew--you remember."

Podbury's eye brightened at this allusion to one of his greatest past
triumphs. He tasted the punch himself, and admitted that it certainly
seemed "about right."

With a desire to be entertaining, I volunteered a fact or two concerning
punch generally. I said:

"Our word 'punch,' as you are doubtless aware, is derived from the
Hindustani '_panch_' or Sanskrit '_panchan_'; which mean simply 'five.'
Punch is a mixture of five ingredients, hence the name."

Everybody was rather impressed with this apposite remark, excepting
Podbury. He answered:

"Yes, that's so. I've known it years and years. You bet what I don't
know about punch isn't worth knowing."

This I took to be sheer conceit on the part of Podbury. His successes
with punch were making the man egotistical. I did not believe that he
had heard of these interesting points before, whatever he said to the
contrary. At any rate, they were quite new to his wife and daughters and
aunts. So I turned my attention to them, and told them several other
things worth knowing. They doubtless retailed my information to Podbury
after we had departed. Still the punch was good and cooling, and, with a
heart that rises above trifles, I here deliberately bless the man who
brewed it. To be thus publicly blessed in print ought to content even
Podbury.

[Illustration: "THE PUNCH WAS GOOD."]

When we returned to the "Rhine" night had shaken out her starry skirts,
and land and sea were very dark. But great electric eyes glared down
from either side of the ship, facilitating the business of loading, and
shining upon a struggling crowd of lighters, and a yelling, swearing
assembly of negroes. Steam cranes groaned and shrieked and rattled; new
passengers were coming aboard, driven to madness with luggage; and
sundry Dominica tradesmen bustled about, selling curiosities. These
people vended stuffed frogs, the skins of humming-birds, Brazilian
beetles, and gigantic Rhinoceros beetles also.

Five or six of them hemmed in the Doctor immediately he arrived, but,