erstices of the netting, rummaging under the
hen-cages, putting his hand between the seams of the deck, there, where
the pitch had scaled off.

"Ah! Cousin Benedict," asked Mrs. Weldon, "do you keep well?"

"Yes--Cousin Weldon--I am well, certainly--but I am in a hurry to get
on land."

"What are you looking for under that bench, Mr. Benedict?" asked
Captain Hull.

"Insects, sir," returned Cousin Benedict. "What do you expect me to
look for, if not insects?"

"Insects! Faith, I must agree with you; but it is not at sea that you
will enrich your collection."

"And why not, sir? It is not impossible to find on board some specimen
of----"

"Cousin Benedict," said Mrs. Weldon, "do you then slander Captain Hull?
His ship is so well kept, that you will return empty-handed from your
hunt."

Captain Hull began to laugh.

"Mrs. Weldon exaggerates," replied he. "However, Mr. Benedict, I
believe you will lose your time rummaging in our cabins."

"Ah! I know it well," cried Cousin Benedict, shrugging his shoulders.
"I have had a good search----"

"But, in the 'Pilgrim's' hold," continued Captain Hull, "perhaps you
will find some cockroaches--subjects of little interest, however."

"Of little interest, those nocturnal orthopters which have incurred the
maledictions of Virgil and Horace!" retorted Cousin Benedict, standing
up straight. "Of little interest, those near relations of the
'periplaneta orientalis' and of the American kakerlac, which
inhabit----"

"Which infest!" said Captain Hull.

"Which reign on board!" retorted Cousin Benedict, fiercely.

"Amiable sovereignty!"

"Ah! you are not an entomologist, sir?"

Never at my own expense."

"Now, Cousin Benedict," said Mrs. Weldon, smiling, "do not wish us to
be devoured for love of science."

"I wish, nothing, Cousin Weldon," replied, the fiery entomologist,
"except to be able to add to my collection some rare subject which
might do it honor."

"Are you not satisfied, then, with the conquests that you have made in
New Zealand?"

"Yes, truly, Cousin Weldon. I have been rather fortunate in conquering
one of those new staphylins which till now had only been found some
hundreds of miles further, in New Caledonia."

At that moment Dingo, who was playing with Jack, approached Cousin
Benedict, gamboling.

"Go away! go away!" said the latter, pushing off the animal.

"To love cockroaches and detest dogs!" cried Captain Hull. "Oh! Mr.
Benedict!"

"A goo