t had stripes on it, and a white chest, and rings all down
its tail. It went asleep in the garden, all stretched out, and showing
its teeth; an' I told Jane, and Dicky ran in an' told uncle. I went to
Mrs Sims, the doctor's wife, to tea; and when I came back I asked Jane
where pussy was and she said it was deadn' berried, but I wasn't to
tell uncle."

"I remember," said Dick. "It was the day I went to the circus, and you
told me not to tell daddy the cat was deadn' berried. But I told Mrs
James's man when he came to do the garden; and I asked him where cats
went when they were deadn' berried, and he said he guessed they went to
hell--at least he hoped they did, for they were always scratchin' up
the flowers. Then he told me not to tell anyone he'd said that, for it
was a swear word, and he oughtn't to have said it. I asked him what
he'd give me if I didn't tell, an' he gave me five cents. That was the
day I bought the cocoa-nut."

The tent, a makeshift affair, consisting of two sculls and a tree
branch, which Mr Button had sawed off from a dwarf aoa, and the
staysail he had brought from the brig, was pitched in the centre of the
beach, so as to be out of the way of falling cocoa-nuts, should the
breeze strengthen during the night. The sun had set, but the moon had
not yet risen as they sat in the starlight on the sand near the
temporary abode.

"What's the things you said made the boots for the people, Paddy?"
asked Dick, after a pause.

"Which things?"

"You said in the wood I wasn't to talk, else--"

"Oh, the Cluricaunes--the little men that cobbles the Good People's
brogues. Is it them you mane?"

"Yes," said Dick, not knowing quite whether it was them or not that he
meant, but anxious for information that he felt would be curious. "And
what are the good people?"

"Sure, where were you born and bred that you don't know the Good People
is the other name for the fairies--savin' their presence?"

"There aren't any," replied Dick. "Mrs Sims said there weren't."

"Mrs James," put in Emmeline, "said there were. She said she liked to
see children b'lieve in fairies. She was talking to another lady, who'd
got a red feather in her bonnet, and a fur muff. They were having tea,
and I was sitting on the hearthrug. She said the world was getting
too--something or another, an' then the other lady said it was, and
asked Mrs James did she see Mrs Someone in the awful hat she wore
Thanksgiving Day. They didn't say anythi