"Listen!" she said. "I have been reading in a book of my father's about
this place, and there was a strange great bird once on Suliscanna. It
has been lost for years, so the book says; and if we could get it, it
would be worth a hundred pounds. We are going to seek it."

"That is nonsense," said Simeon, "for you can get a goose here for
sixpence, and there is no bird so big that it would be worth the half of
a hundred pounds."

"Goose yourself, boy," said Anna tauntingly. "I did not mean to eat,
great stupid thing!"

"What did you mean, then?" returned Simeon.

"You island boy, I mean to put in wise folks' museums--where they put
all sorts of strange things. I have seen one in London."

"Seen a bird worth a hundred pounds?" Simeon was not taking Anna's
statements on trust any more.

"No, silly--not the bird, but the museum."

"Um--you can tell that to Donald; I know better than to believe."

"Ah, but this is true," said Anna, without anger at the aspersion on her
habitual truthfulness. "I tell you it is true. You would not believe
about the machine-boat that runs by steam, with the smoke coming from it
like the spout of our kettle, till I showed you the picture of it in
father's book."