ellow, the lower of a reddish-brown.

Uncle Dick was in as great a state of delight as I, and our pleasure
seemed to be reflected upon Ebo, who showed his satisfaction at having
brought us to the place, by shouldering his spear and striding up and
down with one hand upon his hip, as if proud of his position as
companion of the white man.

The time glided by very fast during our stay at the island, where we
found plenty of fruit, as many fish as we liked to catch, and abundance
of large pigeons and other birds to help our larder. The climate was
hot, but the breezes that came from the sea always seemed to modify the
heat and make it bearable. Several storms occurred, during which the
trees bent before the fury of the blast, and the waves piled the sands
high with weeds and shells. The lightning was terrific and the thunder
deafening. At times it was awful, and a curious scared feeling used at
first to come over me. But I soon grew used to the storms, and as they
were soon over, took but little notice of them, except to enjoy the
delicious freshness of the air that seemed afterwards to make everything
ten times more beautiful than it was before.

It would become wearisome if I kept on writing of the beauty of the
different varieties of the birds of paradise we found, and the lovely
tinting and arrangement of their plumes; let it be sufficient when I
tell you that scarcely a day passed without Ebo finding some fresh
specimen for us to shoot, and then dancing round with the delight of a
boy as we skinned and preserved the new treasure. Sometimes we had a
beetle day, sometimes a butterfly day, collecting the loveliest
specimens; but birds formed our principal pursuit, and our cases began
to present a goodly aspect as we packed in carefully the well-dried
aromatic skins.

I had had one or two more slight touches of fever, and my uncle was
poorly once, but he so skilfully treated us both that the disease was
soon mastered, and the trouble passed over. Taken altogether, though,
we found the island, in spite of the heat, a most delightful place of
residence, and it was with feelings of real regret that I sat in our
swift boat one day with the big sail set, skimming over the smooth sea,
all our stores on board, and Uncle Dick at the helm steering due north,
for we had bidden the beautiful island farewell, and its shores were
beginning to grow distant to our eyes.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

EBO DOES NOT APPROVE OF N