ggesting
such an egregious impossibility."

"That's an impossibility anyhow, Peterkin, because I'm down already,"
said Jack, yawning lazily and stretching out his limbs in a more
comfortable and _degage_ manner.

Peterkin seemed to ponder as he smoked his pipe for some time in
silence.

"Ralph," said he, looking up suddenly, "I don't feel a bit sleepy, and
yet I'm tired enough."

"You are smoking too much, perhaps," I suggested.

"It's not that," cried Jack; "he has eaten too much supper."

"Base insinuation!" retorted Peterkin.

"Then it must be the monkey. That's it. Roast monkey does not agree
with you."

"Do you know, I shouldn't wonder if you were right; and it's a pity,
too, for we shall have to live a good deal on such fare, I believe.
However, I suppose we shall get used to it.--But I say, boys, isn't it
jolly to be out here living like savages? I declare it seems to me like
a dream or a romance.--Just look, Ralph, at the strange wild creepers
that are festooned overhead, and the great tropical leaves behind us,
and the clear sky above, with the moon--ah! the moon; yes, that's one
comfort--the moon is unchanged. The same moon that smiles down upon us
through a tangled mesh-work of palm-leaves and wild vines and monkeys'
tails, is peeping down the chimney-pots of London and Edinburgh and
Dublin!"

"Why, Peterkin, you must have studied hard in early life to be so good a
geographer."

"Rather," observed Peterkin.

"Yes; and look at the strange character of the tree-stems," said I,
unwilling to allow the subject to drop. "See those huge palmettoes
like--like--"

"Overgrown cabbages," suggested Peterkin; and he continued, "Observe the
quaint originality of form in the body and limbs of that bloated old
spider that is crawling up your leg, Ralph!"

I started involuntarily, for there is no creature of which I have a
greater abhorrence than a spider.

"Where is it? oh! I see," and the next moment I secured my prize and
placed it with loathing, but interest, in my entomological box.

At that moment a hideous roar rang through the woods, seemingly close
behind us. We all started to our feet, and seizing our rifles, which
lay beside us ready loaded, cocked them and drew close together round
the fire.

"This won't do, lads," said Jack, after a few minutes' breathless
suspense, during which the only sound we could hear was the beating of
our own hearts; "we have allowed the fire to get too low,