lands that once a year brings me
my provisions. It puts off from my Aunt Amelia's yacht--_The Tattooed
Quaker_. My Aunt Amelia is the only relative that remains to me. It is
she who supplies the tinned meats and the pears. She really has
admirable taste, although her choice in names may be a little fantastic.
In addition to the provisions, it is my aunt's custom to send a letter
beseeching me to return in the yacht to England, and declaring that if I
do not, that particular supply of food will be the last. For forty years
she has done this. She is a noble woman, my Aunt Amelia.'

'When is the boat due?' Chimp asked, thinking more of its possible
effect upon himself than upon the Hermit.

'Soon, soon,' the old man replied, with something very like a sigh. 'In
a fortnight's time, in fact.'

'What a pity!' said Chimp. 'And I say, sir,' he added, 'how decent to be
you. Only there ought to be some niggers.'

The Hermit sighed. They walked back without speaking, and not ten
minutes had passed before Chimp was sound asleep in a corner of the
cave, while the Hermit lay gazing at the stars.

On awaking, Chimp found that the cave was empty. For a moment he thought
himself still dreaming, but the table laid for breakfast recalled him to
facts, and he fell to thinking of the Hermit. 'Rum old beggar!' he
mused. 'A screw loose somewhere, I guess.' When the Hermit returned, it
was plain that the old man had something on his mind, as the saying is.
He spoke not at all at breakfast, except, when laying the table, to
remark that potted ham and chicken make a pleasing variety upon bloater
paste. But after breakfast, placing one seat in the shade for Chimp and
one for himself, he talked.

'I have been thinking deeply, Alexander Joseph Chemmle,' he began.
'During the night I have reviewed my life, and now more than ever I am
conscious of the limiting influence exerted upon a philosopher by the
loss of boyhood. The suspicion has been with me for years: it is now a
certainty. You are not likely, my young friend, to be with me long, for
_The Tattooed Quaker_ will, of course, carry you back to England next
week. But in the intervening time I want you, so far as is within your
power, to make a boy of me. I put myself unreservedly in your hands.
Consider me your apprentice. Will you do this?' The Hermit watched
Chimp's face anxiously.

Chimp was staggered completely. A screw loose, he had thought; but
surely it was the height of madness f