pounds."

"Goose yourself, boy," said Anna tauntingly. "I did not mean to eat,
great stupid thing!"

"What did you mean, then?" returned Simeon.

"You island boy, I mean to put in wise folks' museums--where they put
all sorts of strange things. I have seen one in London."

"Seen a bird worth a hundred pounds?" Simeon was not taking Anna's
statements on trust any more.

"No, silly--not the bird, but the museum."

"Um--you can tell that to Donald; I know better than to believe."

"Ah, but this is true," said Anna, without anger at the aspersion on her
habitual truthfulness. "I tell you it is true. You would not believe
about the machine-boat that runs by steam, with the smoke coming from it
like the spout of our kettle, till I showed you the picture of it in
father's book."

"I have seen the lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown. There are
lies in pictures as well as in books!" said Simeon, stating a great
truth.

"But this bird is called the Great Auk--did you never hear your father
tell about that?"

Simeon's face still expressed no small doubt of Anna's good faith. The
words conveyed to him no more meaning than if she had said the Great
Mogul.

Then Anna remembered.

"It is called in Scotland the Gare Fowl!"

Simeon was on fire in a moment. He stopped rowing and started up.

"I have heard of it," he said. "I know all that there is to know. It was
chased somewhere on the northern islands and shot at, and one of them
was killed. But did it ever come here?"

"I have father's book with me, and you shall see!" Being prepared for
scepticism, Anna did not come empty-handed. She pulled a finely bound
book out of a satchel-pocket that swung at her side. "See here," she
said; and then she read: "'After their ill-usage at the islands of
Orkney, the Gare Fowl were seen several times by fishermen in the
neighbourhood of the Glistering Beaches on the lonely and uninhabited
island of Suliscanna. It is supposed that a stray bird may occasionally
visit that rock to this day.'"

Simeon's eyes almost started from his head.

"Worth a hundred pounds!" he said over and over as if to himself.

Anna, who knew the ways of this most doubting of Thomases, pulled a
piece of paper from her satchel and passed it to him to read. It related
at some length the sale in a London auction-room of a stuffed Great Auk
in imperfect condition for one hundred and fifty pounds.

"That would be pounds sterling!" said Simeon, who wa