by himself, and so it will be more like a
present for both of you together, than most things would be." And she
handed me a box of dominoes.

"I give it to you because you're the oldest, but, remember, it's for
both of you."

Of course we took it, and Corny was much pleased. She was a good little
girl and, somehow or other, she seemed to be older and more sensible
when she was with us than when she was bouncing around in the bosom of
her family.

We had a good deal of talk together, and, after a while, she asked how
long we were going to stay in St. Augustine.

"Until next Tuesday," I said, "and then we shall start for Nassau in the
'Tigris.'"

"Nassau!" she exclaimed, "where's that?"

"Right down there," I said, pointing out to sea with a crook of my
finger, to the south. "It's on one of the Bahamas, and they lie off the
lower end of Florida, you know."

"No," said she; "I don't remember where they are. I always get the
Bahamas mixed up with the Bermudas, anyway. So does father. We talked
of going to one of those places, when we first thought of travelling
for his lung, but then they thought Florida would be better. What is
there good about Nassau? Is it any better than this place?"

"Well," said I, "it's in the West Indies, and it's semi-tropical, and
they have cocoa-nuts and pineapples and bananas there; and there are
lots of darkeys, and the weather is always just what you want----"

"I guess that's a little stretched," said Corny, and Rectus agreed with
her.

"And it's a new kind of a place," I continued; "an English colony, such
as our ancestors lived in before the Revolution, and we ought to see
what sort of a thing an English colony is, so as to know whether
Washington and the rest of them should have kicked against it."

"Oh, they were all right!" said Corny, in a tone which settled that
little matter.

"And so, you see," I went on, "Rectus and I thought we should like to go
out of the country for a while, and see how it would feel to live under
a queen and a cocoa-nut tree."

"Good!" cried Corny. "We'll go."

"Who?" I asked.

"Father and mother and I," said Corny, rising. "I'll tell them all about
it; and I'd better be going back to the hotel, for if the steamer leaves
on Tuesday, we'll have lots to do."

As we were walking homeward on the sea-wall, Rectus looked back and
suddenly exclaimed:

"There! Do you see that Crowded Owl following us? He's been hanging
round us all the afternoon