and strength was in a
conversation he had with his beloved Jenny, who was so occupied in
nursing him her attentions to us were of the most scanty kind. Imagine a
little figure, clothed in a little white gown, his arm and shoulder
bandaged up, lying on a lot of cushions. The smallest little white face
peeped out from a mass of hair, and a little brown monkey, with a face
about the same size, watches the different clouds of restlessness or
pleasure that passed over the little white face with a curious mixture
of wonder and curiosity. Jenny appears with a dish and exposes it to
view. The little invalid, with a lordly air, surveys his dinner.

_Felix._--"A nasty chicken again, Jenny."

_Jenny._--"Oh, Sir, I have roasted it to a turn, and here is egg sauce."

_Felix._--"Then give me the egg sauce, and you may have the chicken. I
wish chickens were never invented."

_Jenny._--"Would you like a duck, Sir?"

_Felix._--"No, duck is nastier. I want a mutton chop, Jenny."

_Jenny._--"But I have not got one, Sir."

_Felix._--"Then a beefsteak."

_Jenny._--"Indeed, I wish I could get one for you, Sir."

_Felix._--"Well, I don't mind, just for once, eating some boiled leg of
mutton."

_Jenny._--"Oh, my darling, then you must want mutton very bad, and you
know there is not such a thing on the island."

_Felix._--"Then it's a bad place, and I wish we were away, having
nothing but chickens and chickens, ducks and ducks, until we shall all
crow and quack."

_Jenny._--"Oh, don't, Sir, don't go for to move, and get in such a
passion, you'll displace the bones, and make your Mama so unhappy."

_Felix._--"I am sure nobody is so unhappy as me; and as for your
chicken, there----"

And with a kick of the little impudent foot away went the chicken out of
its dish into Jenny's face, who forgave her darling on the spot; nay,
even came to us for congratulations on his recovery. "For," says she,
"he is as impudent as ever he was when well, and is that not a good
sign, Ma'am."

_Schillie._--"Wash the remains of the chicken off your face, Jenny, and
then I'll tell you my opinion."

CHAPTER XXVI.

The fact that our beloved island was subject to earthquakes disturbed us
considerably. Storms we began to think quite common, hurricanes nothing,
rain but another mode for enjoyment; but to be swallowed up by the
earth, by the very land that had proved a haven to us when storm-beset
and wave-tossed, seemed an infliction not to b