[Illustration: "What's an absent-minded beggar?"]

"What's an absent-minded beggar?" I asked Mr. Garry, and he said, "Oh,
a fellow like me, who's always got his head full of pictures and things,
and forgets what he's at."

"Then you don't really beg for anything, do you?" I said.

"Lord, no," he said, "except when I'm out with talkative young sports,
and then I beg them to keep quiet."

So I took my fish-line and sat still as a mouse, while he looked up and
down the river, and whistled to himself--when he got a good idea, I
guess, for after he'd whistled some, he'd let the boat drift and make
marks in his sketch-book. He was a nice man, but not used to little
boys, I think, for he used awful big words, and didn't answer questions
like Aunties and Uncles do.

By and by I told him about the Island, and he said, "Right you are,
young Soc-ra-tees," and we landed there, and he kept saying, "Ripping,"
"Splendid," and things like that, and by and by he fished out some
sandwiches and sweet chocolate from his pocket, and gave me some, and
told me to stay there while he rowed around and explored farther up the
side of the Island. I said, "All right," for with things to eat, and a
nice brook, and a shady place, and a book, no boy need have any trouble
finding things to do to keep himself amused. And I didn't.

I made a ship, and loaded it, and I made a fort on the other side of the
brook, and when the ship came near the fort, the men from the fort came
out and had a fight and sank her. Then when I got tired of that I read