d rest it, I'd feel better."

"Same with me, Trot. I've noticed that if you've got to do a thing,
and can't help yourself, it gets to be a hardship mighty quick."

"Folks that can raise their feet don't appreciate what a blessing it
is," said Trot thoughtfully. "I never knew before what fun it is to
raise one foot, an' then another, any time you feel like it."

"There's lots o' things folks don't 'preciate," replied the sailor-man.
"If somethin' would 'most stop your breath, you'd think breathin' easy
was the finest thing in life. When a person's well, he don't realize
how jolly it is, but when he gets sick he 'members the time he was
well, an' wishes that time would come back. Most folks forget to thank
God for givin' 'em two good legs, till they lose one o' 'em, like I
did; and then it's too late, 'cept to praise God for leavin' one."

"Your wooden leg ain't so bad, Cap'n," she remarked, looking at it
critically. "Anyhow, it don't take root on a Magic Island, like our
meat legs do."

"I ain't complainin'," said Cap'n Bill. "What's that swimmin' towards
us, Trot?" he added, looking over the Magic Flower and across the water.

The girl looked, too, and then she replied.

"It's a bird of some sort. It's like a duck, only I never saw a duck
have so many colors."

The bird swam swiftly and gracefully toward the Magic Isle, and as it
drew nearer its gorgeously colored plumage astonished them. The
feathers were of many hues of glistening greens and blues and purples,
and it had a yellow head with a red plume, and pink, white and violet
in its tail. When it reached the Isle, it came ashore and approached
them, waddling slowly and turning its head first to one side and then
to the other, so as to see the girl and the sailor better.

"You're strangers," said the bird, coming to a halt near them, "and
you've been caught by the Magic Isle and made prisoners."

"Yes," returned Trot, with a sigh; "we're rooted. But I hope we won't
grow."

"You'll grow small," said the Bird. "You'll keep growing smaller every
day, until bye and bye there'll be nothing left of you. That's the
usual way, on this Magic Isle."

"How do you know about it, and who are you, anyhow?" asked Cap'n Bill.

"I'm the Lonesome Duck," replied the bird. "I suppose you've heard of
me?"

"No," said Trot, "I can't say I have. What makes you lonesome?"

"Why, I haven't any family or any relations," returned the Duck.

"Haven't you any fr