found it."

"How horrible!"

"Yes, it was, my lad, very; but I won that game. I didn't get the skin
money, for I didn't care for it then. I couldn't see very well. Why, I
was quite blind for a month after, and then all the strength of two eyes
seemed to go into this one. Painters they call 'em nor'ard, as I said;
and he painted me prettily, didn't he, right down this cheek? Never saw
a girl who thought me handsome enough to want to marry me."

Shaddy laughed.

"What is it?" said Rob.

"I was thinking about Mr Brazier yonder when I came to you at Buenos
Ayres."

"What, when he was waiting for the guide Captain Ossolo said he could
recommend?"

Shaddy nodded.

"He looked quite scared at me. Most people do; and the captain had
quite a job to persuade him that I should be the very man."

"Yes, and it was not till the captain said he would not get one half so
good that he engaged you."

"That's so, my lad. But I am a rum 'un, ain't I?"

"You're not nice-looking, Shaddy," said Rob, gazing at him thoughtfully;
"but I never notice it now, and--well, yes, you are always very kind to
me. I like you," added the boy frankly.

Shaddy's one eye flashed, and he did not look half so ferocious.

"Thank ye, my lad," he cried, stretching out his great hand. "Would you
mind laying your fist in there and saying that again?"

Rob laughed, looked full in the man's eye, and laid his hand in the
broad palm, but wished the next moment that he had not, for the fingers
closed over his with a tremendous grip.

"I say, you hurt!" he cried.

"Ay, I suppose so," said Shaddy, loosing his grip a little. "I forgot
that. Never mind. It was meant honest, and Mr Brazier shan't repent
bringing me."

"I don't think he does now," said Rob. "He told me yesterday that you
were a staunch sort of fellow."

"Ah! thank ye," said Shaddy, smiling more broadly; and his ruffianly,
piratical look was superseded by a frank aspect which transformed him.
"You see, Mr Harlow, I'm a sort of a cocoa-nutty fellow, all shaggy
husk outside. You find that pretty tough till you get through it, and
then you ain't done, for there's the shell, and that's hard enough to
make you chuck me away; but if you persevere with me, why, there inside
that shell is something that ain't peach, nor orange, nor soft banana,
but not such very bad stuff after all."

"I should think it isn't," cried Rob. "I say, it would make some of our
boys at home stare who