een
that company and the republic of Anchuria.

The jest was carried to its end. A formidable, official document was
prepared, encrusted with chromatic seals and jaunty with fluttering
ribbons, bearing the florid signatures of state. This commission
conferred upon el Senor Don Felipe Carrera the title of Flag Admiral
of the Republic of Anchuria. Thus within the space of a few minutes
and the dominion of a dozen "extra dry," the country took its place
among the naval powers of the world, and Felipe Carrera became
entitled to a salute of nineteen guns whenever he might enter port.

The southern races are lacking in that particular kind of humour
that finds entertainment in the defects and misfortunes bestowed by
Nature. Owing to this defect in their constitution they are not moved
to laughter (as are their northern brothers) by the spectacle of the
deformed, the feeble-minded or the insane.

Felipe Carrera was sent upon earth with but half his wits. Therefore,
the people of Coralio called him "_El pobrecito loco_"--"the poor
little crazed one"--saying that God had sent but half of him to
earth, retaining the other half.

A sombre youth, glowering, and speaking only at the rarest times,
Felipe was but negatively "loco." On shore he generally refused all
conversation. He seemed to know that he was badly handicapped on
land, where so many kinds of understanding are needed; but on the
water his one talent set him equal with most men. Few sailors whom
God had carefully and completely made could handle a sailboat as
well. Five points nearer the wind than even the best of them he
could sail his sloop. When the elements raged and set other men to
cowering, the deficiencies of Felipe seemed of little importance.
He was a perfect sailor, if an imperfect man. He owned no boat, but
worked among the crews of the schooners and sloops that skimmed the
coast, trading and freighting fruit out to the steamers where there
was no harbour. It was through his famous skill and boldness on the
sea, as well as for the pity felt for his mental imperfections, that
he was recommended by the collector as a suitable custodian of the
captured sloop.

When the outcome of Don Sabas' little pleasantry arrived in the form
of the imposing and preposterous commission, the collector smiled.
He had not expected such prompt and overwhelming response to his
recommendation. He despatched a _muchacho_ at once to fetch the
future admiral.

The collector wa