"
Miss Rolleston looked at Mr. Hazel with alarm in every feature; and
whispered, "Cabbage from the tree. Is he wandering?"
Hazel smiled. "No," said he. "He has picked up a fable of these seas,
that there is a tree which grows cabbages."
Welch heard him and said, with due warmth, "Of course there is a tree on
all these islands that grows cabbages; that was known a hundred years
before you was born, and shipmates of mine have eaten them."
"Excuse me, what those old admirals and buccaneers, that set the legend
afloat, were so absurd as to call a cabbage, and your shipmates may have
eaten for one, is nothing on earth but the last year's growth of the
palm-tree."
"Palm-tree be ----!" said Welch; and thereupon ensued a hot argument,
which Helen's good sense cut short.
"Mr. Hazel," said she, "can you by any possibility get our poor friend
the _thing_ he wants?"
"Oh, _that_ is quite within the bounds of possibility," said Hazel dryly.
"Well, then, suppose you begin by getting him the _thing._ Then I will
boil the thing; and he will eat the thing; and after all that it will be
time to argue about the _name_ we shall give to the _thing."_
The good sense of this struck Mr. Hazel forcibly. He started off at once,
armed with the ax, and a net bag Welch had made since he became unfit for
heavy labor.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273