.

By degrees these discussions degenerated into disputes, and became at
last so noisy that the young athletes were attracted, and some of them
took part in the debates.

"I tell 'ee what it is," exclaimed Nobbs, the blacksmith, raising his
powerful voice above the other voices, and lifting his huge fist in the
air, "something'll have to be done, for I can't go on workin' for
nothin' in this fashion."

"No more can I, or my mates," said Abel Welsh, the carpenter.

"Here comes the Prime Minister," cried Teddy Malone.

"To _be_--he ain't Prime Minister yet," growled Jabez Jenkins, who,
being a secret ally of Hugh Morris, was one of the disaffected, and had,
besides, a natural tendency to growl and object to everything.

"He _is_ Prime Minister," cried the fiery little Buxley, starting up and
extending his hand with the air of one who is about to make a speech.
"No doubt the Queen ain't crowned yet, an' hasn't therefore appointed
any one to be her Minister, but we know she means to do it and we're all
agreed about it."

"No we ain't," interrupted Jenkins, angrily.

"Well, the most on us, then," retorted Buxley.

"Shut up, you radical!" said Nobbs, giving the tailor a facetious slap
on the back, "an' let's hear what the Prime Minister himself has got to
say about it."

"What is the subject under discussion?" inquired Dominick, who, with
Otto, joined the group of men at the moment and flung down a basket of
fine fish which he had just caught in the lagoon.

He turned to Dr Marsh for an answer.

"Do _you_ explain your difficulties," said the doctor to the blacksmith.

"Well, sir," said Nobbs, "here's where it is. When I fust comed ashore
an' set up my anvil an' bellows I went to work with a will, enjyin' the
fun o' the thing an' the novelty of the sitivation; an' as we'd lots of
iron of all kinds I knocked off nails an' hinges an' all sorts o' things
for anybody as wanted 'em. Similarly, w'en Abel Welsh comed ashore he
went to work with his mates at the pit-saw an' tossed off no end o'
planks, etceterer. But you see, sir, arter a time we come for to find
that we're workin' to the whole population for nothin', and while
everybody else is working away at his own hut or garden, or what not,
_our_ gardens is left to work themselves, an' _our_ huts is nowhere!
Now, as we've got no money to pay for work with, and as stones an'
shells won't answer the purpus--seein' there's a sight too much of 'em--
the question i