st, you see," continued the fop.

"I think you said so before."

"I wanted to introduce the matter so as not to be abrupt; not to tear
myself rudely away from the ladies, you see. We were gazing out upon the
vast ocean, you see; and a quotation from the poet--ah--a doosed odd
sort of a thing, written by the poet--what's his name? you know--about
an old salt that killed a wild goose, or some sort of a thing, and then
had nothing to drink. I repeated the quotation, and both of the girls
laughed: 'Water, water, all around, but not a drop of whiskey to
drink.'"

"I don't wonder the girls laughed," replied Leopold.

"Why so?" asked Mr. Redmond, blankly.

"You didn't quote it just as the poet 'What-you-call-him' wrote it,
Stumpy can give it to you correctly."

"'Water, water everywhere;
Not any drop to drink,'"

added Stumpy; "and Coleridge was the fellow that wrote it."

"Not correct," protested Mr. Redmond, emphatically. "Do you mean to tell
me that an old salt thought of drinking water? It isn't the way old
salts do that sort of thing, you see."

The coxcomb felt that he had the best of the argument, however
astonished he was to find that these countrymen knew something about the
poets.

"I told the ladies that I felt just as that old salt did, only I would
rather have water just then than whiskey, however good whiskey may be in
its place, you see. From this it was quite easy to say that I was very
thirsty; and I said so. Though Miss Hamilton did not wish me to leave
her, you see, she was kind enough to tell me that I should find a spring
of nice cold water under the cliff. I apologized for leaving the ladies,
you see; but they were so self-sacrificing as to say that I needn't
climb up the rocks to join them again; they would soon meet me on the
beach. Isn't it strange how these girls will sometimes give up all their
joys for a feller?"

"The girls must be miserable up there without you," added Leopold.

"The water was clear and cold, and it suited me better than the whiskey
that old salt wanted in the poem. I found a tin cup at the spring, and I
drank half a gallon. I was very thirsty, you see. While I was drinking,
I heard you talking about the bag of gold; and then I stepped in here
under this rock, just in the nick of time. Come, Stumpy, cut the string
of the bag, and let us divy before the ladies join us."

"Why should you want a share of it Mr. Redmond?" asked Leopold very much
embarrassed