; and,
believing that Providence had not entirely dispensed with miracles in
dealing with the things of this world, came to the conclusion that it
was no earthly visitor they had to deal with; and he even went so far
as to hint that prayer was a more efficacious means of solving the
mystery than the methods his brothers were pursuing.

Jack, coinciding in some degree with Ernest, shifted his view from an
ape to an anthropophagian, and blamed the latter for not coming
earlier; when he and his brothers were younger, and consequently more
tender, they would have made a better meal, and been more easily
digested.

As to what opinion Becker himself entertained, with regard to the
occurrence at Falcon's Nest that kept his sons in a feverish state of
anxiety, and had awakened all the fears of the Pilot for the safety of
his friends on board the _Nelson_, nothing could be clearly
ascertained; in so far as this matter was concerned he kept his own
counsel; and, to use an expression of Madame de Sevigne, "had thrown
his tongue to the dogs."

The close of the day had, as usual, collected all the members of the
family round the domestic hearth; and it may be stated here that Mrs.
Wolston, Mary, and Mrs. Becker alternately undertook the preparations
of the viands for the diurnal consumption of the community. By this
means, uniformity, that palls the appetite, was entirely banished from
their dishes. One day they would have the cooked, or rather
half-cooked, British joints of Mrs. Wolston and her daughter, varied
occasionally, to the great delight of Willis, with a tureen of
hotch-potch or cocky-leekie. The next there would be a display of the
cosmopolite and somewhat picturesque cookery of Mrs. Becker; there was
her famous peccary pie, with ravansara sauce, followed by her
delicious preserved mango and seaweed jelly. Nor did she hesitate to
draw upon the raw material of the colony now and then for a new hash
or soup, taking care, however, to keep in view the maxim that
prudence is the mother of safety--an adage that was rather roughly
handled by the renowned French linguist, Madame Dacier, who, on one
occasion nearly poisoned her husband with a Lacedemonian stew, the
receipt for which she had found in Xenophon.

Luckily Becker's wife did not know Greek, consequently he ran no risk
of being entertained with a classic dinner; but he was often reminded
by his thoughtful partner of Meg Dod's celebrated receipt: before you
cook you