, who, in his wonted sudden and
bursting manner, gave vent to a resonant cheer.

"Hallo! ho! hooray!" he shouted, while a blaze of delight lit up his
face; "there's the boat, daddy!"

"Where away, lad?" demanded Gaff, rising and shading his eyes from the
sun, as he looked in the direction indicated.

"There, down i' the cove; bottom up among the rocks; stove in, I
daresay. Don't 'ee see'd, faither?"

"Ay, lad; and mayhap it bean't stove in; leastwise we'll go see."

As the two hastened down to the beach to ascertain this important point,
Gaff took a more leisurely survey of things on the island, and Billy
commented freely on things in general.

"Now, daddy," said the Bu'ster, with a face of beaming joy, "this is the
very jolliest thing that ever could have happened to us--ain't it?"

"Well, I'm not so sure o' that, lad. To be cast away on a lone desert
island in the middle o' the Pacific, with little or no chance o' gittin'
away for a long bit, ain't quite the jolliest thing in the world, to my
mind."

"Wot's a _desert_ island, daddy?"

"One as ain't peopled or cultivated."

"Then _that's_ no objection to it," said Billy, "because we two are
people enough, and we'll cultivate it up to the mast-head afore long."

"But what shall we do for victuals, lad?" inquired Gaff, with a smile.

The Bu'ster was posed. He had never thought of food, so his countenance
fell.

"And drink?" added Gaff.

The Bu'ster was _not_ posed at this, for he remembered, and reminded his
father of, the pond which they had seen from the ridge.

"Aha!" he added, "an' there was lots o' ducks on it too. We can eat
them, you know, daddy, even though we han't got green peas or taties to
'em."

"We can have other things to 'em though," said Gaff, pointing to a tall
palm-tree; "for there are cocoa-nuts; and farther on, to this side o'
the hollow there, I see banana-trees; and here are yams, which are
nearly as good as taties."

"I told ye it would be jolly," cried Billy, recovering his delight, "an'
no doubt we'll find lots of other things; and then we'll have it all to
ourselves--you and me. You'll be king, daddy, or emperor, and I'll be
prince. Won't that be grand?--Prince of a South Sea island! What would
Tottie and mother say? And then the boat, you know--even if it do be
stove in, we can patch it up somehow, and go fishin'."

"Without hooks or lines?" said Gaff.

Billy was posed again, and his father laughed at the perple