coming obstreperous, received an amicable punch from
his father, which sent him headlong into a basket of boiled
hippopotamus. He gave a wild howl of alarm as Disco snatched him out of
the dish, dripping with fat, and set him on his knee.

"There, there, don't blubber," said the seaman, tenderly wiping off the
fat while the natives, including Kambira, exploded with laughter. "You
ain't burnt, are you?"

As Obo could not reply, Disco put his finger into the gravy from which
the urchin had been rescued, and satisfied himself that it was not hot
enough to have done the child injury. This was also rendered apparent
by his suddenly ceasing to cry, struggling off Disco's knee, and
renewing his assaults on his easy-going father.

Accepting an egg which was offered him by Yohama, Harold broke it, and
entered into conversation with Kambira through the medium of Antonio.

"Is your boy's mother a--Hollo! there's a chick in this egg," he
exclaimed, throwing the offensive morsel into the fire.

Jumbo, who sat near the place where it fell, snatched it up, grinned,
and putting it into his cavernous mouth, swallowed it.

"Dem's betterer wid chickies," he said, resuming his gravity and his
knife and fingers,--forks being held by him in light esteem.

"Ask him, Antonio, if Obo's mother is alive," said Harold, trying
another egg, which proved to be in better condition.

The interpreter, instead of putting the question without comment, as was
his wont, shook his head, looked mysterious, and whispered--"No better
ask dat. Hims lost him's wife. The slave-hunters cotch her some time
ago, and carry her off when hims away hunting. Hims awful mad, worser
dan mad elerphint when hims speak to 'bout her."

Harold of course dropped the subject at once, after remarking that he
supposed Yohama was the child's grandmother.

"Yis," said Antonio; "she be Kambira's moder, an' Obo's gran'moder--bof
at once."

This fact was, we may almost say, self-evident for Obo's attentions and
favours were distributed exclusively between Yohama and Kambira, though
the latter had unquestionably the larger share.

During the course of the feast, beer was served round by the little man
who had performed so deftly on the violin the previous evening.

"Drink," said Kambira hospitably; "I am glad to see my white brothers
here; drink, it will warm your hearts."

"Ay, an' it won't make us drunk," said Disco, destroying Jumbo's peace
of mind by winking and