bed-time. Only Uncle didn't come home every night, you know.

When they had finished, Briton had a huge dish of scraps; Veevee sat
watching him eat, and the children were very much surprised to see
Briton shove one of the biggest and best morsels towards him. The tiny
dog picked up the titbit and wagged his tail. After he had eaten it,
he went and lay down beside Briton on the hearth-rug.

The "something nice" that Uncle had to tell was soon told now.
Captain Staysail cleared his throat before he began: "Ahem! Oh,
you're all waiting, are you, to hear what I've got to say? Well,
then--ahem!--Professor Peterkin--"

"Pete--Pete--Pete--Pete!" cried the droll, wee man, stopping him, and
one would have thought he was calling a dog. "I'm not going to be called
Professor, and I won't Peterkin. Just Pete, as I was on board ship, as I
am to everybody, and must be to you.

"But just look here, Staysail, you're a sailor, and you can't make a
speech. Let me speak." And speak he did without waiting for a reply.

"It's all in a nutshell, dear Mr. and Mrs. Dunlop, and I'll tell you in
two or three sentences what your worthy sailor-brother would have kept
you up all night to hear. Now listen! Briton, you lie down! Good again!
Now I, Dan Peterkin, am a man who has been used to study hard, and think
hard. You follow me so far? Good again!

"Well, there is one thing has taken me years to work out, and that is,
where in this world gold and coal are to be found. And I've done it. I
can go right to the spots. One of them lies on an island right away up in