this place."

"Niggers is good peepils," reiterated the girl.

"So they are, Puppy, and you're the best of 'em; but I was speakin' of
the fellers on the other side of the island, d'ye see?"

"Hee! hee!" ejaculated the girl.

"Well, but what makes you so anxious?" said Alice, looking earnestly
into the boy's face.

Corrie laid his hand on her head and stroked her fair hair as he
replied--

"This is a serious matter, Alice; I must go at once and see your father
about it."

He rose with an air of importance, as if about to leave the kitchen.

"Oh! but please don't go till you have told me what it is; I'm so
frightened," said Alice; "do stay and tell me about it before you go to
papa."

"Well, I don't mind if I do," said the boy, sitting down again. "You
must know, then, that it's reported there are pirates on the island."

"Oh!" exclaimed Alice.

"D'ye know what pirates are, Puppy?"

"Hee! hee!" answered the girl.

"I do believe she don't know nothin'," said the boy, looking at her with
an air of compassion "wot a sad thing it is to belong to a lower species
of human natur! Well, I s'pose it can't be helped. A pirate, Kickup,
is a sea-robber. D'ye understand?"

"Ho! ho!"

"Ay, I thought so. Well, Alice, I am told that there's been a lot o'
them landed on the island and took to chasin' and killin' the niggers,
and Henry was all but killed by one o' the niggers this very morning,
an' was saved by a big feller that's a mystery to me, and by the
Grampus, who is the best feller I ever met--a regular trump he is; and
there's all sorts o' doubts, and fears, and rumours, and things of that
sort, with a captain of the British navy, that you and I have read so
much about, trying to find this pirate out, and suspectin' everybody he
meets is him. I only hope he won't take it into his stupid head to
mistake _me_ for him--not so unlikely a thing after all." And the
youthful Corrie shook his head with much gravity, as he surveyed his
rotund little legs complacently.

"What are you laughing at?" he added, suddenly, on observing that a
bright smile had overspread Alice's face.

"At the idea of you being taken for a pirate," said the child.

"Hee! hee! ho! ho!" remarked Poopy.

"Silence, you lump of black putty!" thundered the aspiring youth.

"Come, don't be cross to my maid," said Alice, quickly.

Corrie laughed, and was about to continue his discourse on the events
and rumours of the day, when Mr Mason