nd it will not do for her to
remain here after we have had our supper--for after supper, the men may
take a drop too much, and not behave themselves; so I asked you about
your cabin, that you might take her there to sleep. Can you do that?"

"Yes," replied I; "I will take her there if she wishes to go."

"That's all right then; she'll be better there than here, at all events.
I say, boy, where did you leave your trousers?"

"I never wear any."

"Well then, if you have any, I advise you to put them on, for you are
quite old enough to be breeched."

I remained with them while the supper was cooking, asking all manner of
questions, which caused great mirth. The pitch-kettle, which was a
large iron pot on three short legs, surprised me a good deal; I had
never seen such a thing before, or anything put on the fire. I asked
what it was, and what it was made of. The potatoes also astonished me,
as I had never yet seen an edible root.

"Why, where have you been all your life?" said one of the men.

"On this island," replied I, very naively.

I waded into the water to examine the boat as well as I could by the
light of the fire, but I could see little, and was obliged to defer my
examination till the next day. Before the supper was cooked and eaten,
I did, however, gain the following information.

That they were a portion of the crew of a whaler, which had struck on a
reef of rocks about seventy miles off, and that they had been obliged to
leave her immediately, as she fell on her broadside a few minutes
afterwards; that they had left in two boats, but did not know what had
become of the other boat, which parted company during the night. The
captain and six men were in the other boat, and the mate with six men in
the one which had just landed--besides the lady.

"What's a lady?" said I.

"I mean the woman who sits there; her husband was killed by some of the
people of the Sandwich Isles, and she was going home to England. We
have a consort, another whaler, who was to have taken our cargo of oil
on board, and to have gone to England with that and her own cargo, and
the missionary's wife was to have been sent home in her."

"What's a missionary?" inquired I.

"Well, I don't exactly know; but he is a preacher who goes out to teach
the savages."

By this time the supper was cooked, and the odour from the pitch-kettle
was more savoury than anything that I had ever yet smelt. The kettle
was lifted off the fire