ddle. Twined in the Banana tree was an immense gourd plant. At this
minute I shuddered with horror. We had been so secure, so careless, so
utterly unmindful of any danger that I was quite unnerved at seeing a
huge thing three or four feet long drop from the Banana, close between
us. "Keep back, keep back," said Schillie, "I have got my hatchet." But
she never could bear to kill anything, so we looked on the creature, and
it on us. It was very ugly and formidable to look at, but it had a quiet
eye, and after a little while it crawled gently away, and commenced
trying to get up the tree again. "I think it must be an iguana," said I
at last.

"Whatever it is I admire its civility," said Schillie.

"If it is they are quite harmless, though he looks very horrible," said
I.

"He does not intend to harm us, it appears, so we will go on," said
Schillie, "because I begin to feel very hungry, and we had better look
out for a comfortable spot on which to dine."

"I have been hungry more than an hour, but you were so absorbed in your
discoveries you would not listen to my hints. I should like to go to
that little knoll, in which those four cocoa-nut trees stand, we shall
have a little air then, and can see any danger all round, and, perchance
find a cocoa-nut."

"Which you may have all to yourself, June, for I think them unwholesome
things."

After a dinner and a successful nutting, I proposed a siesta, as it was
impossible to move during the sultry noon, which Schillie agreed to
provided I went to sleep first, whilst she watched for an hour, then
she was to waken me, and I was to watch in my turn.

After a profound sleep of some duration I awoke, and found my guard in a
helpless state of somnambulism, which was so very deep I did not like to
disturb her; neither could I move, as the better to guard me she was
lying half over me, I, therefore, though anxious about the time we had
been sleeping, decided to sit still and wait until she showed some signs
of waking. She had the watch round her neck, and I could not look at it
without disturbing her, so I amused myself with watching the curious and
strange things around me. I noticed some black things in the water,
which came nearer and nearer, and I gave a start of pleasure when I
perceived that they must be turtle; at last one landed and crawled in
the most extraordinary manner some way up the sands. After spending what
I thought was half an hour in the oddest movements and va