ttle Canuck dear, don't ever enlist as a cook.
Nothing spoils the stomach of you like the smell of the warming
broth."

"You like the change, then, Paddy?" Weldon asked, as he thriftily
packed up his parcel and stowed it away in his pocket, with an eye
to the gratitude of Kruger Bobs.

"Like, is it? I rejoice greatly and shout, as the Book bids us. It's
a man's work I'm doing now; it's with men that I am doing that work,
and it's a man who leads me on to do that work, meaning Captain
Frazer."

"Where is the Captain now?"

Paddy dropped down on the ground, midway between his friends and his
ant-hill.

"Over yonder, doing the work of an honest man and a warrior."

"That goes without saying. What now?"

But Paddy chose to speak in metaphors.

"He's thrown down his sword and picked up his bottle," he responded
enigmatically.

"Not drinking?" Weldon asked incredulously.

"No, little one; not doing, but doing by. He's administering advice
and physic to them cormyrants of Queenslanders. The Colonials are a
hard race to manage and a greedy." Paddy spoke with an accent of
extreme disfavor.

"What have the poor Queenslanders done?"

"Poor it is; not poor in spirit, but poor in judgment. They've
converted the top course of their dinner into the bottom course of
their breakfast, and now they're suffering according. Next time,
when their kyind officers order them up, each a little Crosse and
Blackwell plum pudding, they'll know enough to eat them up hot on a
full stomach, not bolt them down cold on top of a lone layer of
dog-bread. Man is permitted to make such errors but once in his life,
without having Providence get after him and slay him. Little
Canuck?" "Paddy?"

"The top of the ant-hill is white with heat, and the lambie must
enter the roasting tomb. Will you and Mr. Carew eat with me?"

"We've no intention of eating anywhere else, Paddy. We know your
cooking of old."

"It's an honor you'll be doing me, then. And, moreover--" Paddy
hesitated, with the words sticking to his lips.

"What now?"

"Think you the Captain--I mean the Adjutant; but he'll always be the
Captain to me--would he take it amiss, think you, little one, if I
sent him a bit of the joint, for the sake of old times? He'll like
be eating truffled ostrich and locust sauce at the mess; but Paddy'd
like to have a hand in his Christmas dinner. It's all I can do for
him, and he's done much for me."

"Try him and see, Paddy," Weldon advised.