ake. So much the better. You've been expecting and
expecting, and thinking about emptying that tub, and getting shovels
full o' pearls out o' the bottom, and it's made you forget all about
your sore chesty and give it time to get well. 'Tis quite well now,
aren't it?"

"I think so, Bob; only the doctor says I'm to be very careful."

"Of course you have to be, my lad. But don't you fidget; I'll tell you
when number one cask's ripe, and then don't you expect too much, for
it's like lots o' things in this here world; it may turn out werry
disappointing. You puts in pounds o' trouble, and don't get out an
ounce o' good. P'raps there won't be a teaspoonful o' pearls, and them
only as small as dust."

"Oh!" ejaculated Carey.

"No use to reckon on them, sir, but all the same, sometimes when a tub's
emptied it turns out wonderful."

But the time wore on; tub after tub was filled, and the contents grew
more and more liquid, and the testing was still kept in abeyance.

"Never mind," said the doctor, laughing, when Carey protested; "there is
no harm in waiting."

And day by day Carey grew stronger, gradually taking his part in the
daily avocations, fishing and shooting; and it was a grand day for him
when one day the doctor thought that he might join him on an expedition
to the lake.

"I'm all right now, Bob," he said, hurrying to the old sailor after
this.

"Well, yes, you seem to be, sir," said Bostock; "what with the doctor's
looking you up and down and me feeding you, we've pretty well made a man
of you, and you're nearly all right; but I don't quite take what you
mean."

"I've passed my last examination now, and Doctor Kingsmead seems to
think he can give me up."

"I'm glad of it, my lad. Hearty, my lad."

"And we're going to explore a bit, going right up to the lake."

"Am I coming too?"

"Of course. You'd like to, wouldn't you?"

"Course I should, sir. Going to take the guns?"

"Oh, yes, and I mean to shoot. I want to see that lake too. It has
been so tiresome only keeping along the shore and about the sands."

"You've had some tidy sails about the lagoon, and some good fishing, my
lad."

"Of course I have, but I want to shoot."

"Well, I s'pose it's natural, sir," said Bostock. "I know when I was a
boy I always wanted to do something else. If I was in a garden it allus
seemed as if the next garden must be better, and I wanted to look over
the wall. One allus wants to be doing somethi