elevate the
spirits. Be this as it may, it is a fact that when Ailie was awakened
on the following morning about daybreak, and told to get up, she felt
sulky--positively and unmistakably sulky.

We do not say that she looked sulky or acted sulkily--far from it; but
she felt sulky, and that was a very uncomfortable state of things. We
dwell a little on this point because we do not wish to mislead our young
readers into the belief that life in the wild woods is _all_ delightful
together. There are shadows as well as lights there--some of them,
alas! so deep that we would not like even to refer to them while writing
in a sportive vein.

But it is also a fact, that when Ailie was fairly up and once more in
the canoe, and when the sun began to flood the landscape with his golden
light and turn the water into liquid fire, her temporary feelings of
discomfort passed away, and her sensation of intense enjoyment returned.

The scenery through which they passed on the second day was somewhat
varied. They emerged early in the day upon the bosom of a large lake
which looked almost like the ocean. Here there were immense flocks of
water-fowl, and among them that strange, ungainly bird, the pelican.
Here, too, there were actually hundreds of crocodiles. The lake was
full of little mud islands, and on all of them these hideous and
gigantic reptiles were seen basking lazily in the sun.

Several shots were fired at them, but although the balls hit, they did
not penetrate their thick hides, until at last one took effect in the
soft part close behind the foreleg. The shot was fired by the trader,
and it killed the animal instantly. It could not have been less than
twenty feet long, but before they could secure it the carcass sank in
deep water.

"What a pity!" remarked Glynn, as the eddies circled round the spot
where it had gone down.

"Ah, so it is!" replied the doctor; "but he would have been rather large
to preserve and carry home as a specimen."

"I ax yer parding, sir," said Tim Rokens, addressing Dr Hopley; "but
I'm curious to know if crocodiles has got phrenoligy?"

"No doubt of it," replied the doctor, laughing. "Crocodiles have
brains, and brains when exercised must be enlarged and developed,
especially in the organs that are most used, hence corresponding
development must take place in the skull."

"I should think, doctor," remarked the captain, who was somewhat
sceptical, "that their bumps of combativeness