dn't mind just now, for there don't
seem to be nothing to eat here, nor nothing to drink."

They stood leaning against the rocky wall, not caring to risk sitting
down on account of the foul air, and not daring to go to the mouth of
the cave for fear of being seen, till Don suggested that they should
steal there cautiously, and lie down with their faces beyond the cavern
floor.

This they did, glad of the restful change; but hours passed and no
sounds met their ears, save the hissing and gurgling from the interior
of the cave, and the harsh screech of some parrot or cockatoo.

Every time a louder hiss than usual came from the interior, Jem became
convulsed, and threatened another explosion of laughter, in spite of
Don's severely reproachful looks; but in every case Jem's mirthful looks
and his comic ways of trying to suppress his hilarity proved to be too
much for Don, who was fain to join in, and they both laughed heartily
and well.

It is a curious fact, one perhaps which doctors can explain, and it
seems paradoxical. For it might be supposed that when any one was
hungry he would feel low-spirited, but all the same there is a stage in
hunger when everything around the sufferer seems to wear a comic aspect,
and the least thing sets him off laughing.

This was the stage now with Jem and Don, for, the danger being past,
they lay there at the mouth of the hole, now laughing at the
recollection of the sailor's fright, now at the cries of some parrot or
the antics of a cockatoo which kept sailing round a large tree, whose
hold on the steep rocky side of the ravine was precarious in the
extreme.

The presence of white people seemed to cause the bird the greatest of
wonder, and to pique his curiosity, and after a flit here and a flit
there, he invariably came near and sat upon a bare branch, from which he
could study the aspect of the two intruders.

He was a lovely-looking bird as far as the tints of the plumage went;
but his short hooked beak, with a tuft of feathers each side, and
forward curved crest, gave him a droll aspect which delighted Jem, as
the bird came and sat upon a twig, shrieking and chattering at them in a
state of the greatest excitement.

"Look at his starshers, Mas' Don," said Jem, as the bird's side tufts
half covered the beak and then left it bare. "Look at his hair, too.
Hasn't he brushed it up in a point? There, he heared what I said, and
has laid it down again. Look at him! Look at him!