He
and his engineer friend were both good shots, and they had made an
expedition on purpose to get these birds for Alister. There were some
most splendid specimens, and the grandest of all, to my thinking, was a
Roseate Spoonbill, a wading, fish-catching bird of all shades of rose,
from pale pink to crimson. Even his long horny legs were red. But he was
not a pleasant subject for my part of the work. He smelt like the
_Water-Lily_ at her worst, before we got rid of the fish cargo.

Knowing that he had got them for Alister, I was rather surprised one day
when Dennis began picking out some of the rarest birds and put them
aside. It was so unlike him to keep things for himself. But as he turned
over the specimens, he began to ask me about Cripple Charlie, whose
letter he had read. Meanwhile he kept selecting specimens, and then,
returning them to the main body again, "Ah, we mustn't be robbing
Alister, or he'll never die Provost of Aberdeen." In the end he had
gathered a very choice and gorgeous little lot, and then I discovered
their destination. "We'll get them set up when we get home," he said; "I
hope Charlie 'll like 'em. They'll put the old puffin's nose out of
joint, anyway, for as big as it is!"

Our ship was a steamship, a well-found vessel, and we made a good
passage. The first mate was an educated man, and fond of science. He
kept a meteorological log, and the pleasantest work we ever did was in
helping him to take observations. We became very much bitten with the
subject, and I bought three pickle-bottles from the cook, and filled
them with gulf-weed and other curiosities for Charlie, and stowed these
away with the birds.

Dennis found another letter from his father awaiting him at the Halifax
post-office. The squire had discovered his blunder, and sent the money,
and the way in which Dennis immediately began to plan purchases of all
sorts, from a birch-bark canoe to a bearskin rug, gave me a clue to the
fortunes of the O'Moores. I do not think he would have had enough left
to pay his passage if we had been delayed for long. But our old ship was
expected any hour, and when she came in we made our way to her at once,
and the upshot of it all was, that Dennis and I shipped in her for the
return voyage as passengers, and Alister as a seaman.

Nothing can make the North Atlantic a pleasant sea. Of the beauty and
variety of warmer waters we had nothing, but we had the excitement of
some rough weather, and a goo