ti-coloured plumage that it was one of the Psittacidae, an
excellent substitute for partridge."

"You didn't see that," said Oliver, rather swollen.

"Yes, I did."

"What did you see?"

"I saw that."

"What?"

"You shut up."

"David shot it," I summed up, "and Oliver knew its name, but I ate it.
Do you remember how hungry I was?"

"Rather!" said David.

"I cooked it," said Oliver.

"It was served up on toast," I reminded them.

"I toasted it," said David.

"Toast from the bread-fruit-tree," I said, "which (as you both remarked
simultaneously) bears two and sometimes three crops in a year, and also
affords a serviceable gum for the pitching of canoes."

"I pitched mine best," said Oliver.

"I pitched mine farthest," said David.

"And when I had finished my repast," said I, "you amazed me by handing
me a cigar from the tobacco-plant."

"I handed it," said Oliver.

"I snicked off the end," said David.

"And then," said I, "you gave me a light."

"Which of us?" they cried together.

"Both of you," I said. "Never shall I forget my amazement when I saw you
get that light by rubbing two sticks together."

At this they waggled their heads. "You couldn't have done it!" said
David.

"No, David," I admitted, "I can't do it, but of course I know that all
wrecked boys do it quite easily. Show me how you did it."

But after consulting apart they agreed not to show me. I was not shown
everything.

David was now firmly convinced that he had once been wrecked on an
island, while Oliver passed his days in dubiety. They used to argue it
out together and among their friends. As I unfolded the story Oliver
listened with an open knife in his hand, and David who was not allowed
to have a knife wore a pirate-string round his waist. Irene in her usual
interfering way objected to this bauble and dropped disparaging remarks
about wrecked islands which were little to her credit. I was for defying
her, but David, who had the knack of women, knew a better way; he
craftily proposed that we "should let Irene in," in short, should wreck
her, and though I objected, she proved a great success and recognised
the yucca filamentosa by its long narrow leaves the very day she joined
us. Thereafter we had no more scoffing from Irene, who listened to the
story as hotly as anybody.

This encouraged us in time to let in David's father and mother, though
they never knew it unless he told them, as I have no doubt he did. They
wer