sky, and the delicious perfume of all manner of growing things on
the earth.

After the rains the old sailor said he'd be after making a house of
bamboos before the next rains came on them; but, maybe, before
that they'd be off the island.

"However," said he, "I'll dra' you a picture of what it'll be like
when it's up;" and on the sand he drew a figure like this:

X

Having thus drawn the plans of the building, he leaned back
against a cocoa-palm and lit his pipe. But he had reckoned without
Dick.

The boy had not the least wish to live in a house, but he had a
keen desire to see one built, and help to build one. The ingenuity
which is part of the multiform basis of the American nature was
aroused.

"How're you going to keep them from slipping, if you tie them
together like that?" he asked, when Paddy had more fully
explained his method.

"Which from slippin'?"

"The canes--one from the other?"

"After you've fixed thim, one cross t'other, you drive a nail