nd me for another
man. I mean she got married. That's why Billy and I live alone now,
except for the niggers. They's a right and a wrong way to everything.
_This_--is the right way with Billy. Billy, lie down."

For an instant the animal hesitated as if suspecting some treachery in
this familiar command; then he doubled himself together like a
jack-knife, or till he was but a mound of mule-flesh upon the grass.

"She taught him. She rode this way. Billy, get up."

This strange man had seated himself sidewise upon the mule's back,
leisurely freeing his feet from the loose-hanging harness and
balancing himself easily as the animal got up. Then still sitting
sidewise he ordered:

"Billy, proceed."

At once Billy "proceeded" at an even and decorous pace, while the lads
walked alongside, vastly entertained by this unusual rider and his
mount. He seemed to think a further explanation necessary, for as they
neared the bottom of the slope he remarked:

"Learned that in Egypt. Camel riding. She came home and taught him."

Then they came to the edge of the bank and paused in surprise. Instead
of the gay welcome they had expected, there was Chloe walking
frantically up and down, hugging a still dripping little figure to her
breast and refusing to yield it to the outstretched arms of poor old
Ephraim, who stood in the midst of his melons, a woe-begone, miserable
creature, wholly unlike his jubilant self of a brief while before.

"What's--happened?" asked Jim, running to Chloe's side.

"'Tis a jedgmen'! A jedgmen'! Oh! de misery--de misery!" she wailed,
breaking away from him and wildly running to and fro again, in the
fierce excitement of her race.

Yet there upon the roof of the cabin, cheerily looking out from his
"bridge" was Cap'n Jack. He was waving his crutches in jovial welcome
and trying to cover Chloe's wailing by his exultant:

"I fished him out with a boat-hook! With--a--boat-hook, d'ye hear?"

CHAPTER VII.

VISITORS.

Attracted by the wild flowers growing in the fields around the cove
where the Water Lily was moored, the four girls had left the boat a
little while before the melon seekers had done so.

Mabel and Aurora cared little for flowers in themselves but Dorothy's
eagerness was infectious, and Elsa's pale face had lighted with
pleasure. But even then her timidity moved her to say:

"Suppose something happens? Suppose we should get lost? It's a
strange, new place--I guess--I'm afraid--I