“You have only to give your orders, sir,” said the captain, smiling with satisfaction; and as the men sat with their oars balanced, the boat glided slowly on, hardly disturbing the surface; but her shadow was sufficient as it darkened the water to still startle the fish from their homes.
“Here’s work, Meadows—here’s collecting. Jack, boy, what do you think of it?”
“Oh!” ejaculated the lad, without raising his eyes from the wondrous scene he was watching once more.
There does not seem much in that simple little interjection; but the meaning put into it by the tone and the face of the lad who uttered it spoke volumes.
“Ah, it is oh!” cried the doctor. “Here, Jack, it’s all nonsense, I can’t be thirty-six; I feel only sixteen, and I want to begin wading in here.”
“I’d advise you to wear very thick boats then,” said the captain. “Some of these things are knife-edged, some sharp as thorns. You’ll have to take care.”
“Oh, we will; eh, Jack?”
“Yes; but we must get a lot of these as specimens. Here, look—look!”
“Ah, one of those snakes,” said Sir John. “One? Look—look! there are dozens of them gliding about.”
“Then I shan’t wade,” said the doctor decisively. “I don’t want any patients this trip, and there wouldn’t be much fun in laying myself up with a bad leg, and having myself to attend. I shall do my wading in a boat.”