billows, and from two o'clock until four, passed six weeks on the
island supported only by a piece of candle, a box of matches, and
two peppermint lozenges. It was at this time that it became
necessary to account for Polly's existence among them, and this was
only effected by an alarming sacrifice of their morality; Hickory
and Wan Lee instantly became _Pirates_, and at once elected Polly as
their Queen. The royal duties, which seemed to be purely maternal,
consisted in putting the Pirates to bed after a day of rapine and
bloodshed, and in feeding them with liquorice water through a quill
in a small bottle. Limited as her functions were, Polly performed
them with inimitable gravity and unquestioned sincerity. Even when
her companions sometimes hesitated from actual hunger or fatigue and
forgot their guilty part, she never faltered. It was her _real_
existence--her other life of being washed, dressed, and put to bed
at certain hours by her mother was the _illusion_.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Doubt and scepticism came at last,--and came from Wan Lee! Wan Lee
of all creatures! Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanical
performance of a Pirate's duties--a perfect imitation like all his
household work--had been their one delight and fascination!

It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman with the
indiscriminate slaughter of all on board--a spectacle on which the
round blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternal