that you must not see."

Then Jennie took the cage up, by means of the ring which formed the
handle at the top, and carried it into her state room. She pushed aside
the curtains of the lower berth, and, putting the cage in, she deposited
it upon a small shelf in the end of the berth. Then, drawing the
curtains again very carefully, she came out of the state room and shut
the door.

"Now, Tiger," said she, as she tried the door to see if it was fast,
"you are safe; and you must stay there until the little bird goes away."

The kitten, when she found herself thus left alone in such a seclusion,
stood for a moment on the floor of the cage, looking toward the
curtains, in an attitude of great astonishment; then, knowing well, from
past experience, that it was wholly useless for her to speculate on the
reasons of Jennie's doings, she lay down upon the floor of the cage,
curled herself into a ring, and went to sleep again.

[Illustration]

As for Hilbert, who had set off from the smoke pipe deck at the same
time with Jennie, and in an equally eager manner, his going below had
been with an entirely different intent from hers. He was going to get
his bow and arrows, in order to shoot the little bird. He found them on
the seat where he had left them. He seized them hastily, and ran up by
the forward gangway, which brought him out upon the forward deck not
very far from where the bird was resting upon the coil of rigging. He
crept softly up toward him, and adjusted, as he went, his arrow to his
bow. Several of the sailors were near, and one of them, a man whom they
called Hargo, immediately stopped the operation that he was engaged in,
and demanded of Hilbert what he was going to do.

"I am going to pop one of my arrows into that bird," said Hilbert.

"No such thing," said the sailor. "You pop an arrow into that bird, and
I'll pop _you_ overboard."

Sailors will never allow any one to molest or harm in any way the birds
that alight upon their ships at sea.

"Overboard!" repeated Hilbert, in a tone of contempt and defiance. "You
would not dare to do such a thing."

So saying, he went on adjusting his arrow, and, creeping up toward the
bird, began to take aim.

Hargo here made a signal to some of his comrades, who, in obedience to
it, came up near him in a careless and apparently undesigned manner.
Hargo then, by a sudden and unexpected movement, pulled the bow and
arrow out of Hilbert's hand, and passed them instantly