“What’s he doin’ that for, Tommy?” whispered Wriggs.
“Stuffin’ on it to keep the skin from s’rivellin’, mate. Can’t yer see?”
“Yes, that’s it,” said Oliver, as he worked away. Then, laying the wing bones together, so as to keep them a short distance apart, he proceeded to bind a little of the cotton fibre round the leg bones before wiping his fingers, carefully feeling for the bird’s claws, and drawing them out from among the soft feathers where they nestled, and restoring the skin to its place so that it fitted well over the wool.
“Look at that, now, Billy. There y’are, regular pair o’ natural legs again. Wonderful thing, bird-stuffing! Hope we don’t worry you, sir, talkin’.”
“Oh no, talk away,” said Oliver smiling, as he made up a little egg-shaped ball of cotton wool of the size of the bird’s body, which dangled upon a hook at the end of a string. And then he took a pinch of the wool, doubled it, and thrust the doubled part into the skull, leaving enough to form the bird’s neck, followed up with the loose egg-shaped pad which he laid upon the tied together wing bones, and then, with a clever bit of manipulation, drew the skin over the pad, gave the bird a bit of a shake, and, as if it had been some conjuring trick, every feather came back into its right place, and to all appearances there lay a dead bird before him on the head of the cask.
“Three cheers and a hextra hooray!” cried Smith. “Ain’t that wonderful, Billy? You and me couldn’t ha’ made a bird like that.”
“No,” said Oliver, laughing, “and I couldn’t have furled the main-topgallant sail like you two could.”
“Well, sir, that’s true enough,” said Smith; “but if you wouldn’t mind me astin’, ‘What’s the good o’ pysonin’ a bird when it’s dead?’”
“I don’t,” said Oliver, as he busily smoothed feathers and fitted the bird’s folded wings close to its sides, giving a pinch them in their here and a pinch there before confining places by rolling a strip of paper round, and fastening it with a pin.
“What I do is to poison the skin, so that it may be fatal to any mischievous insect that might wish to eat it, and make the feathers fall out.”