d. There was another kettle of which the Indians ate
freely into which Dick dipped his spoon. He made a wry face as he
swallowed the portion he had scooped up and said to Ned:

"Tell your copper-faced friend that he had better give that swill
back to the pigs he stole it from."

"Be careful, Dick, he understands."

"Then let him say so in a decent language and I'll apologize for
hurting his feelings, but I won't say that stuff is fit to eat, not
if I am tied to the stake."

Dick spent one afternoon getting acquainted with the Indian
children, in which he succeeded so well that when he came back to
the camp streaming with water, the whole bunch, although they were
quite as well soaked as he, followed him screaming with laughter,
quite like white children.

"What is the trouble?" inquired Ned as soon as the youngsters gave
him a chance to be heard.

"Only the usual thing. These Indians don't know how to manage their
roly-poly canoes and I'm afraid I'll be drowned before I get 'em
taught."

Dick had found a big family canoe that looked as if it couldn't
capsize and had made signs to an Indian boy to go out in it with
him. Before they were fairly afloat all the pickaninnies belonging
to the camp had piled into the craft. From the smallest squab to the
biggest boy, the Indian children danced about in the canoe without
disturbing its equilibrium. The boy in the stern, standing on the
extreme point of the craft, set his pole on the coral bottom and
threw his weight back upon it until his whole body stood out almost
parallel with the water behind the canoe. Dick stood on the tiny
deck on the bow of the boat, but with every thrust of his pole the
canoe wabbled till the pickaninnies balanced it. But Dick improved
with practice and as he grew confident, threw his weight on the pole
in true Seminole fashion. He would have pulled through with credit,
but for the slipping of his pole on a point of coral rock, when he
fell heavily in the water, capsizing the craft as he went overboard.
At first the boy was alarmed for the safety of his cargo of
children, but soon saw that they were as much at home in the water
as on land and were quite capable of caring for themselves. After
Ned had heard what had happened he called the attention of the
squaws to the ducking of their babies without causing the faintest
gleam of interest to cross their stolid faces.

After another day of eating with the Seminoles and sleeping on their
table