le don't go off, Dinny," cried Jack.

Dinny leaped off the rhinoceros and stared.

"It's a very dangerous thing to rest your arms on the muzzle of a gun,"
said Dick, who enjoyed poor Dinny's discomfiture.

"Well, Dinny," said his master, "I congratulate you upon having slain a
monster. Where did you stand?"

"Oh, over yonder somewhere," said Dinny cavalierly. "Anywhere to get a
good soight ov him."

"Stood here behind tree where nosros no get at um," said Chicory,
innocently, in his eagerness to explain all he could.

"Ah, ye avil little baste," muttered Dinny. "See if I give ye the laste
taste of anything I've got. Ah, yes," he said aloud, "I did get one
shot at him from behind that big tree; but I cud see him best out in the
open yander. Shure an' how big is the baste, sor?" he added, as Mr
Rogers ran a measuring tape along the animal from nose to tail.

"Just over eleven feet, Dinny," said Mr Rogers; and leaving the General
to hew off the great blunt horn, they returned to breakfast.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

DICK TRIES THE VEGETABLE FISH-HOOKS.

Directly breakfast was over they started--this time without Dinny, who
seemed to be very nervous for fear he should be asked to go--to get some
of the honey, Coffee and Chicory each carrying a zinc pail, and the
General a small tub.

Long before they reached the patch of forest-trees the little bird came
fluttering and twittering about them, having apparently forgiven their
past neglect, and then went on, and flew from bush to bush, leading them
straight to the big trees, perching as before upon one close by, and
then silently watching the manoeuvres of the party.

The General was about to take the lead, but Coffee and Chicory uttered
such a strong protest in their native tongue, that he smilingly handed
his hatchet to Coffee; while Chicory collected some tolerably dry peaty
growth, struck a light and set it on fire, causing a dense cloud of
smoke to rise up round the tree that contained the wild honey, and
stupefying and suffocating the bees that flew to and fro.

The boys grinned with delight at their task, and danced about, heaping
up the smoke-producing leaves and stalks, till feeling satisfied that
they might ascend, there was a bit of an altercation as to who should
go, ending in Chicory giving way to his brother as he had been ill.

Coffee then took the axe and stuck it in his loin-cloth, and a patch of
burning turf in his hand. Then nimbly cli