Part 13 (1/2)

”Solee; Soh, All to the haven where each would be”

I listened to the wooings of the black boys to the breeze They liked not the prospect of sweeping the boat hos, with petulant whistlings, and with gentle but novel objurgations But it ca fell, and the butterflies, a faint, thin stratue to the breeze that we longed for, and which had resisted all appeals, ”Co wind and kill little boat!”

exclai ached with the days dull silence, and who saw no prospect of hot turtle steak for supper

As if to take up the gauntlet, a faint zephyr flicked the listless cheek of the ocean, and slapped the sails The boouidance, idly headed off, and we flopped hoetic breeze, which was all that Nature in her idle hour could spare

THE SERPENT BEGUILED

Eve Avenged

”You do yet taste Sos certain”

Once upon a tio either--an unpretentious poultry far, if not a rapid and bulky fortune, at least ”a co” (and that phrase e has been conceived, possibly,novel, therefore, in the hatching out of this particular scheme But for a paltry detail it would never have attained notoriety We never blazon our failures--why should we?

The one spark of original thought that enlightened the prosaic plans of the undertaking was this: The pros of their hens as well as quantity Quantity rests with the hen, but quality--like the ”sluttishness” of Touchstone's sweetheart--ht be no excuse for and no degeneracy on the part of the hens, shops were ransacked for nest eggs of proper proportions These were placed in spots conspicuous to the hens, who, of course, understood that they were expected to lay up to them In other words, these were patterns for the hens to lay by No self-respecting, conscientious fowl likes to be beaten by a nest egg She goes one, or, itis never to be bluffed It is there as a standard of size, and in accordance with its dimensions so will the credit of the fowl yard be

In this particular yard all ell for s with scarcely an effort, and then startedrecords It was a fierce and claood beginning had been h-minded hens chuckled with pride and satisfaction In the course of two or three gs took place There was just the sa the artfulness of the hens, but the eggs soon dwindled down below plans and specifications, and then an investigation took place Not a single nest egg was to be found Vainly was search ered They had fulfilled their duty, and finding it tiresos, had secreted those set apart for them to measure by, and had thereupon levelled their enterprise and skill down Such sinfulness and such burglarious conduct on the part of respectable hens that had the , that had never been allowed to play in anybody else's yard, and that had never been permitted to wander from the paths of virtue, was a sore affliction

But one day a nest egg was found far away in the bush, and then another a quarter of ain another was discovered underneath a hollow log Being restored to accustoht of all the hens in convention asses produced resulted in a few days, but again a slus had disappeared, and the hens were fulfilling their contract anyhow

Other nest eggs of prescribed dimensions were taken out of stock; and a yetabout fowl-feeding tireat cry arose

”Sen-ake!” ”Sen-ake!”

Yes, there was a snake About half--the latter half--its length was visible outside the back of a nesting place (a box open at the front), and a blow from a shovel disabled it Further exah a knot hole in the box A lusty man hauled on the snake violently The box was heavy, and from the front the snake could be seen It looked troubled and uncoh the inducement in that direction was considerable

Eventually the snake parted; and in the latter half there was a bulge

Dissection revealed--What-- But why did the snake show such reluctance to leave the box? The first or forward half was hooked out fro the straw, and there was another oval distention--another nest egg! The snake had discovered elsewhere a china egg, had sed it, and then crawled in at the knot hole, and got outside another Escape was i

There are no more accusations of dishonourableaith the porcelain patterns to escape the arduous duty of laying It was all the fault of the serpent Now the serpent is not wise, for any nest egg beguiles hiest such hardware Traps are now laid for hi of china is put in a box, the open part of which is covered with s The snake sub on a bunch of grass, and having o Then co-handled shovel, and the end of the snake is piece--s

ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE

”Cooling of the air with sighs, In an odd angle of the Isle”

Now to proceed with the deliberate intention of dragging by the ears into these pages a crocodile yarn We have not a single ”alligator” in Australia, our crocodiles being wrongly so called, but this perversity of nomenclature does not affect the anecdote

To tell of the coast of Queensland, and to omit reference to an adventure with one of those wary beasts would be to court criticism likely to cast a shadow upon the veracity of more than one of the incidents and occurrences herein to be chronicled

I approach the duty to the readers as well as to myself with diffidence, for has it not been stated that these pages were fated to be unsensational and unroine an unsensational adventure with a crocodile? Therein lie the virtue of and the apology for this story