The Island Queen | Page 9

and rowing slowly, we can overcome these difficulties by not being in a hurry,-- taking things easy, you know."
To this Dominick replied that there was one difficulty which his little brother, with all his wisdom and capacity, would never overcome.
"And what may that be?" demanded Otto.
"The difficulty of being unable to talk common-sense."
"True, Dom, true, that is a great difficulty," retorted the boy, with deep humility of aspect, "for a man's conversation is greatly affected by the company he keeps, and with you as my only male companion, I have not much to hope for in the way of example. But even that may be got the better of by holding intercourse chiefly with Pina."
"But what if I refuse to talk?" said Pauline, with a laugh.
"Then will you be all the more able to listen, sister mine, which is the most common-sense thing that you can do, except when brother Dom speaks," said the incorrigible boy.
They had seated themselves on a bank while thus conversing, and from their position could see over a considerable portion of the lagoon. Suddenly Dominick pointed to an object a long way off, which was half concealed by the shadow of an island.
"Does it not look like a canoe?" he asked eagerly.
"Can't make it out at all," said Otto, shading his eyes with his hand.
"The sun on the water dazzles one so," observed Pauline, "that it is difficult to look steadily."
In a few moments the object which had drawn their attention sailed out from under the shade of the island, and, breaking up into fragments, rose into the air, proving itself to be a flock of large aquatic birds which had been swimming in a line.
"Things are not what they seem," observed Pauline, rising and following her brothers through a little thicket.
"What a pity!" exclaimed Otto; "I was in hopes it was a canoeful of savages. It would be such fun to have a real Friday to be our servant."
"More likely that our Friday would kill, cook, and eat us if he could," said Dominick, to the surprise of Otto, who gave it as his opinion that savages never ate men, and asked if his brother really believed that they did.
"Indeed I do. We have it recorded by all the best authorities that South Sea islanders are given to this horrible practice. There can be no doubt about it whatever, and the less we see of these fellows in our present defenceless state the better."
"How little," said Pauline, "our dear father thought when he wrote for us to go out to him in his ship, that we should be cast on an unknown island, and the ship itself go to the bottom!"
"Little indeed, and as little did poor mother dream of such a fate," returned Dominick, "when she let us all go so readily, on the understanding that we should give father no rest until we had got him to give up business, quit Java for ever, and return home."
"Dear old mother!" said Pauline, "I wish--oh! I wish so much that we had not left her, even though it was to be for only a few months. She must be so lonely, with no one to talk to--"
"You forget Pina."
"Forget--what?"
"The cat," returned Otto, unable to repress a smile, which rose in spite of the ready tear that dimmed his eye at the mere mention of his mother. "You know the cat is her great resource--a sort of safety-valve. Sometimes, when I've been listening to her, lying on the rug at her feet half asleep, I've heard her talk to that cat as if it really was a human being, and tell it all about her little affairs and daily troubles and worries in quite a confidential tone. I've taken it into my head that that's mother's way of thinking aloud--she thinks at the cat, for company: and to do the brute justice, it does its best to accommodate her. I've seen it sit and stare at her by the half-hour at a time, and give a little purr or a meaiow now and then as if it wanted to speak. I'm quite sure it thinks, and wonders no doubt what idle, useless work it is to click knitting-needles together by the hour."
"Dear me, Otto," said Pauline, with a laugh, "I had no idea that you could think so much about anything."
"Think!" exclaimed the boy, indignantly; "d'you suppose that it's only stern-browed, long-legged fellows like Dom there who can think? Why, I think, and think, sometimes, to such an extent that I nearly think myself inside out! But, Pina, you don't know half as much about motherkin as I do, for when you are with her she usually forgets herself, I can see, and talks only about the things that interest you; whereas, when there's nobody