t. Though I said nothing, I looked at Hargrave and Jenny.

_Hargrave_ (very mysteriously).--"I hassure you, Ma'am, I am not
haccustomed, that is, Ma'am, it is no business of mine. I ham not in the
'abits of touching corpses and hexcuse me, Ma'am, this is so very--oh
dear me whathever 'as come hover me. I shall faint, I know."

_Jenny_ (very pale and _resolute_).--"I think, Ma'am, if I rolled it up
in a sheet, we might drag it between us to some distant cavern, and bury
it in the sand."

_Oscar._--"No, Jenny, we must cut him in pieces, and carry him out bit by
bit into the sea."

_Felix._--"Yes, here is his own saw, that I took away the last time we
were at his house. He is only a pirate, Jenny, and quite dead; so, saw
away!"

_Jenny._--"Oh, Master Felix, I did not think you had the heart to be so
cruel."

_Oscar._--"Cruel! don't be absurd, Jenny. You don't care a bit for
cutting off the heads of the chickens so why should you mind cutting up
this great brute."

_Jenny._--"Oh! Sir, you really must excuse me, I cannot do it, even to
please you."

Our dilemma was really growing most painful. "Can one bury him here, as
he is, without touching him?" said I. "Oh no, Mother," said Oscar. "We
could never endure the place knowing this body was buried in it.
Besides, see where he has fallen just where we dine. At all events, if
you will none of you touch him, and he must be buried here, let us seek
another cavern to live in, one nearer the waterfall."

"Shall we follow Otty's advice," said I to the others, "it seems the
only thing we can do, but it is horrible."

"Cover up those unsightly remains, and let us begone," said Schillie,
"the place is getting horrible even now."

We ran for every sort of thing we could find to shovel the sand over
him, and though very soon out of sight, we worked harder and harder, as
if the more sand we put over him, the more we drove from us the horrible
sight. We then recollected the ladders, and Gatty and Serena ran up, and
let them down, and then swung themselves down by a rope, which we
fastened at the side of the cavern, in such a manner as to be hardly
apparent, and certainly of no use.

For a full hour after we had done, the children were throwing more sand
on the great Tumulus now before us, while we moved as many of our things
as we could to another cavern, smaller, less convenient, and darker. We
were so busy, that we forgot the pirates might come back, and were
therefore el