shipmen were treated with
the greatest kindness by the residents at Freetown, so that they had a
very pleasant time of it, and were in no hurry for the arrival of a
vessel to carry them back to their ships. They made friends in all
directions, both among the higher as well as among the less exalted
grades of society; indeed, they were general favourites. Even Queerface
and Polly and Nelly came in for some share of the favour they enjoyed,
for although neither monkeys nor parrots can be said to be scarce in
Africa, their talents were so great and of so versatile a character,
that their society was welcomed almost, Adair declared, as much as that
of their masters. Queerface more than once, however, got into disgrace.
The three midshipmen were spending the day at the house of a kind old
gentleman a short distance from the town. It was as cool and airy a
place and as pleasant an abode as could be found under the burning sun
of Africa, surrounded with broad verandahs, French windows, and Venetian
blinds. The hour of dinner arrived, and all the family assembled in the
dining-room, but Mr Wilkie, the host, did not make his appearance.
They began to get anxious about him, and some of the ladies hurried off
to call him, when at length he came up the room laughing heartily with a
white night-cap on his head. "I must apologise, ladies and gentlemen,"
he said, "but the truth is, I wear a wig, a fact you are probably aware
of; but while I was taking my siesta somebody came and took my wig away.
Sambo and Julius Caesar and Ariadne have been hunting high and low and
on every side without success, and what is extraordinary my
dressing-gown disappeared at the same time. However, I hope that you
will excuse me, for I thought it better to appear as I am than not at
all; for, I confess it, I have but two wigs, and my other one has been
left at the barber's to be refrizzled."

Some dreadful suspicions came over Paddy's mind when he heard this, and
his fears were not allayed when he heard a loud chattering, and
presently Queerface, with Polly and Nelly, appeared at the open window,
the former with the missing wig on his head and the dressing-gown over
his shoulders. In he popped, nothing daunted, and seeing an empty
chair--the intended occupant had died of the coast fever that morning--
he squatted himself down in it, and began bowing and grinning away round
to all the company.

Paddy began to scold him, but Queerface merely lifted