d Captain Dick.

"And a blue bow around its neck," chimed in Fidge, his eyes dancing with
excitement.

"Ship ahoy!" shouted the bird, as it came close up to the table.

"Good gracious! Why it can talk," said Marjorie.

"Talk! Of course I can," answered the bird. "Why not, pray?"

"Well, birds don't generally talk, except parrots," added Marjorie, as
an afterthought.

"Parrots!" exclaimed the bird, stamping furiously on the seat of the
chair; "I hate 'em--nasty, showy, pretentious, ill-bred creatures;
regular shrieking hypocrites, that's what I call 'em."

"What sort of a bird are you, then?" asked Dick.

"I'm a Dodo," said the creature, with a consequential air.

"Oh! then you are extinct," said Dick. "I read it in a natural history
book."

"Yes, I am," admitted the Dodo. "It's lovely being extinct," he added,
complacently. "Have you ever tried it?"

"Good gracious, no," cried Dick.

"What does it mean, Dick, dear?" whispered Marjorie, who didn't like to
appear ignorant.

"Gone out, I think," explained Dick. "Anyhow, they say a volcano is
extinct when it has gone out."

"Yes, that's quite right," explained the Dodo, with a wink. "Haven't you
ever heard the vulgar expression, 'Does your mother know you're out?'
Well, where I come from, we just say, 'Is your maternal relative aware
of your extinction?' instead. It's the same thing, you know, and sounds
ever so much better. Then, again, it's most convenient, if any one calls
whom you don't wish to see, just to tell the servants to say that you
are extinct, and there is an end of the matter. But I mustn't stop all
day, I must be off to sea."

"Are you going to sea on that chair?" cried Marjorie.

"Well, it's as good as a table anyhow, as far as I can see," laughed the
Dodo. "Yes, I've an appointment with an Ichthyosaurus at the Equator at
noon, so I must be off. Good-by. Oh! while I think of it, though, if
you _do_ come across him, you might give him my love, and tell him that
I'm extinct, will you please? Ha--ha--he will be amused!"

"Who do you mean?" called out Dick, as the Dodo floated away on his
chair.

"The little Panjandrum," was the reply; "you are pretty sure to meet him
sooner or later."

"Oh, we're going to see the Pan--jan--de--lum," announced Fidge,
capering about in glee. "Hooray!"

In the meantime the table had drifted on till the house was quite out of
sight, and had reached the base of the cliffs, where the smugglers' cave
was. T