“It will?”
“Yes. Put a little in a skillet, and heat it gradually, so as not to scorch it, and it will turn red.”
“How glad I am! now I can have two colors—red and yellow—to paint my canoe. Don’t tell John—will you? I want to astonish him.”
“He won’t ask me; he isn’t such an inquiring, thinking, contriving critter as you are. You can have another color—black.”
“Yes; if I could send to Salem and buy lampblack.”
“You can make it right on the island.”
“Make it?”
“Yes; it’s nothing but ‘sut.’ Get a whole lot of pitch wood, and burn it in some tight thing, so as to keep in the smoke; the black will stick to the sides, and you can scrape it off, as good lampblack as you can buy, and better than half of it.”
“We have got plenty of oil,—hake, cod, and seal.”
“I wouldn’t use that; it is almost impossible to make it dry; you can get linseed oil at the store.”