And to think I never gave you
credit for knowing anything, except medicine."

"You haven't got to the bottom of it yet, Mrs. O'Halloran. My head
is just stored with knowledge, only it isn't always that I have a
chance of making it useful. I would be just the fellow to be cast
on a desert island. There is no saying what I wouldn't do towards
making myself comfortable there.

"But I do know about scurvy, for I made a voyage in a whaler,
before I got His Majesty's commission to kill and slay in the army;
and I know how necessary vegetables are. I only wish we had known
what the Spaniards were up to, a month since. We would have got a
cargo of oranges and lemons. They would have been worth their
weight in silver."

"But they wouldn't have kept, Teddy."

"No, not for long; but we would have squeezed them, and put sugar
into the juice, and bottled it off. If the general had consulted
me, that is what he would have been after, instead of seeing about
salt meat and biscuits. We shall get plenty of them, from ships
that run in--I have no fear of that--but it is the acids will be
wanting."

As soon as dinner was over, Captain O'Halloran went downstairs; and
had no difficulty in arranging, with the man below, for the entire
use of his garden. An inspection was made of the hedge, and the man
agreed to close up all gaps that fowls could possibly creep
through. He was also quite willing to let off a room for storage,
and his wife undertook to superintend the management of the young
broods, and sitting hens. Having arranged this, Captain O'Halloran
went down into the town to make his purchases.

A quarter of an hour later Bob started with Manola, carrying a
large basket, and both were much amused at their errand. Going
among the cottages scattered over the hill above the town, they had
no difficulty in obtaining chickens and fowls--the former at about
five pence apiece, the latter at seven pence--such prices being
more than double the usual rates. Manola's basket was soon full
and, while she was taking her purchases back to the house, Bob
hired two boys with baskets and, before evening, nearly a hundred
fowls were running in the garden.

The next day Bob was considered sufficiently experienced to
undertake the business alone and, in two more days, the entire
number of two hundred had been made up. Three of the natives had
been engaged in collecting baskets of earth among the rocks and, in
a week, the terrace was converted