Itchlin, 'ow you enjoyin' that watah? As fah as myseff am
concerned, 'I am afloat, I am afloat on the fee-us 'olling tide.' I
don't think you fine that stweet pwetty dusty to-day, Mistoo Itchlin?"

Richling laughed.

"It don't inflame my eyes to-day," he said.

"You muz egscuse my i'ony, Mistoo Itchlin; I can't 'ep that sometime'.
It come natu'al to me, in fact. I was on'y speaking i'oniously juz now
in calling allusion to that dust; because, of co'se, theh is no dust
to-day, because the g'ound is all covvud with watah, in fact. Some
people don't understand that figgah of i'ony."

"I don't understand as much about it myself as I'd like to," said
Richling.

"Me, I'm ve'y fon' of it," responded the Creole. "I was making seve'al
i'onies ad those fwen' of mine juz now. We was 'unning a 'ace. An' thass
anotheh thing I am fon' of. I would 'ather 'un a 'ace than to wuck faw a
livin'. Ha! ha! ha! I should thing so! Anybody would, in fact. But thass
the way with me--always making some i'onies." He stopped with a sudden
change of countenance, and resumed gravely: "Mistoo Itchlin, looks to me
like you' lookin' ve'y salad." He fanned himself with his hat. "I dunno
'ow 'tis with you, Mistoo Itchlin, but I fine myseff ve'y oppwessive
thiz evening."

"I don't find you so," said Richling, smiling broadly.

And he did not. The young Creole's burning face and resplendent wit were
a sunset glow in the darkness of this day of overpowering adversity. His
presence even supplied, for a moment, what seemed a gleam of hope. Why
wasn't there here an opportunity to visit the hospital? He need not tell
Narcisse the object of his visit.

"Do you think," asked Richling, persuasively, crouching down upon one of
his heels, "that I could sit in that thing without turning it over?"

"In that pee-ogue?" Narcisse smiled the smile of the proficient as he
waved his paddle across the canoe. "Mistoo Itchlin,"--the smile passed
off,--"I dunno if you'll billiv me, but at the same time I muz tell you
the tooth?"--

He paused inquiringly.

"Certainly," said Richling, with evident disappointment.

"Well, it's juz a poss'bil'ty that you'll wefwain fum spillin' out
fum yeh till the negs cawneh. Thass the manneh of those who ah not
acquainted with the pee-ogue. 'Lost to sight, to memo'y deah'--if you'll
egscuse the maxim. Thass Chawles Dickens mague use of that egspwession."

Richling answered with a gay shake of the head. "I'll keep out of it."
If Na