“No, I’m hot, and this fire brings in a breeze and makes it cooler—on one side. But what I like in a fire of this kind is that you can burn as much wood as you like, and nobody can say it’s waste, because it’s doing good—clearing the ground for the trees around to grow. I say, look at the birds.”
“After supper,” said Joe, as he watched the actions of the principal boatman, who was head cook, busily preparing the ducks and two good-sized fish which they had caught by trailing a bait behind the boat as they came.
“Yes, I’m hungry,” said Rob. “What’s that?”
“It was Shaddy.”
“What! tumbled in?” said Rob excitedly.
“No; he took hold of a thick piece of branch and threw it into the water. What did you do that for?”
“Scare them ’gators, my lad. There’s a whole school of ’em out there, and I think they mean coming to supper. And fish too,” he added, as there was another splash and then another.
By this time he was close alongside of the boat, under whose tent Mr Brazier was busy by the light of a lanthorn making notes and lists of the flowers and orchid bulbs which he had secured that day.
“Hadn’t we better put out a line, Shaddy? If we caught a fish or two the men would be glad of them in the morning.”
“No, Mr Rob, sir; I don’t suppose they’d bite now, and even if they did, so sure as you hooked one a smiler would get hold of it, and you don’t want another fight of that sort. I’m beginning to think that we’d best get our bit o’ food, and then drop slowly down the river again.”