idn't I borry the gun a'
purpose for that same? and didn't the big baste stale my gyarments in
the most ondacent way?"

"But how? Where? Where?" was asked by father and sons, in a breath.

"Shure an' I'm the laste bit weary wid my exertions," said Dinny, "and
I'll jist light me pipe and sit down and rest, and tell ye the while."

All in the most deliberate way, Dinny proceeded to light his pipe and
rest; and then, with Chicory sitting in front with his arms tightly
embracing his knees, and his eyes and mouth open, Dinny related his
adventure with the rhinoceros.

The late Sir Walter Scott in speaking of embellishing and exaggerating a
story called it adding a cocked-hat and walking-stick.

Dinny put not merely a cocked-hat and walking-stick to his story, but
embellished it with a crown, sceptre, and royal robes of the most
gorgeous colours. It was wonderful what he had done; the furious
conduct of the rhinoceros, the daring he had displayed, the precision
with which he had sought out vital parts to aim at. A more thrilling
narrative had never been told, and Chicory's eyes grew rounder and his
mouth wider open in his astonishment and admiration, the hero going up
wonderfully in the boy's esteem, especially as he read in Dinny's looks
the promise of endless snacks and tastes when he was hungry.

But all the same, Dinny's flights of fancy grew a little too lofty for
his other hearers.

"Oh, I say, Dinny, come now," said Dick, as his father sat back
listening with a good-humoured smile upon his lip. "I'm not going to
believe that a rhinoceros rose up on its hind legs and fought at you
with its fore paws, while you stood still and aimed at it."

"Shure, Masther Dick, dear, did you ever know me say anything that
wasn't thrue? If ye doubt me word, there's Masther Chicory there, as
brave a boy as ever stepped in--I mane out of shoe leather, and spread
his little black toes about in the sand. He was there all the toime,
and ye can ax him if he didn't see it."

"Yes," said Chicory, "nosros try to get through big tree, and Dinny
shoot um."

"There," said Dinny triumphantly, "what did I tell you? Why, if ye
don't believe me, there's the baste itself lying as dead as a hammer
where I shot him."

"Then it's only a little pig or a young rhinoceros, Dinny," said Jack.

"Little pig!" cried Dinny. "By this an' by that, he's as big as the
waggon there, tub an' all. Sure a bigger and more rampaging baste niver
foug