, but didn't keep it up long, and so I took lessons. For, when we go
to France, one of us ought to know how to talk, or we shall be cheated
dreadfully. Well, you see, over on the little deck, up there, is that
gentleman with his wife and a young lady, and they're all travelling
together, and these make-believe French people have been jabbering about
them ever so long, thinking that nobody else on board understands
French. But I listened to them. I couldn't make out all they said, but I
could tell that they were saying all sorts of things about those other
people, and trying to settle which lady the gentleman was married to,
and they made a big mistake, too, for they said the small lady was the
one."

"How do you know they were wrong?" I said.

"Why, I went to the gentleman and asked him. I guess he ought to know.
And now, if you'll come up there, I'd just like to show those people
that they can't talk out loud about the other passengers and have nobody
know what they're saying."

"You want to go there and talk French, so as to show them that you
understand it?" said I.

"Yes," answered Corny, "that's just it."

"All right; come along," said I. "They may be glad to find out that you
know what they're talking about."

And so we all went to the upper deck, Rectus as willing as anybody to
see the fun.

Corny seated herself on a little stool near the yellow-legged party, the
men of which had put down their guns for a time. Rectus and I sat on the
forward railing, near her. Directly she cleared her throat, and then,
after looking about her on each side, said to me, in very distinct
tones:

"_Voy-ezz vows cett hommy ett ses ducks femmys seelah?_"[B]

I came near roaring out laughing, but I managed to keep my face
straight, and said: "_Oui._"

"Well, then,--I mean _Bean donk lah peetit femmy nest pah lah femmy due
hommy. Lah oter femmy este sah femmy._"[C]

[Illustration: "VOY-EZZ VOWS CETT HOMMY ETT SES DUCKS FEMMYS SEELAH?"]

At this, there was no holding in any longer. I burst out laughing, so
that I came near falling off the railing; Rectus laughed because I did;
the gentleman with the wife and the young lady laughed madly, and Mr.
Chipperton, who came out of the saloon on hearing the uproar, laughed
quite cheerfully, and asked what it was all about. But Corny didn't
laugh. She turned around short to see what effect her speech had had on
the yellow-legged party. It had a good deal of effect. They reddened
an