"Me mother says the same, sorr."
"Gentlemen," said the doctor, "I have all along been a believer in hybrids. Granted, they may be accidental, even unnatural. Nevertheless, here you have a specimen before you—a hybrid between the snake and the lizard. You see the long body; you see the legs near the creature's shoulder—two legs only. Dissection may probably reveal two rudimentary limbs farther aft. This specimen, gentlemen, shall grace the museum at Edinburgh, and I—"
Here he picked the creature up by the tail, when, lo and behold, out tumbled a frog from the mouth of a snake. The latter had swallowed the frog, all but the hind quarters. Everybody roared with laughter, and the doctor's face grew a fathom long, more or less. The frog was alive, and rubbing one of its eyes; the snake was dead: but the doctor was never allowed to forget his hybrid.
* * * * *
Having in a former book described the scenery, the tree-scapes, and mountains and glens in Jamaica, and the beautiful ocean around—beautiful even in the grandeur of its storms—I have no desire to repeat, but I must say that Jack Mackenzie lost no opportunity of going on shore with Dr. Reikie. A day with him in the woods and wilds, if it were merely bird, beetle, or butterfly hunting, was a picnic never to be forgotten; and our young hero learned something every time, and was soon convinced that natural history is the most pleasant of all earthly studies. Nor did a day spent on shore ever pass without some little adventure or other worth remembering. Many of these were rather comical than otherwise.
During their escapades inland the two friends saw a good deal of black men's life. Dr. Reikie found some of these fellows handy in carrying specimens; they also acted as guides when the two explorers went far inland. As regards the ethics of these men, I think they were what the doctor called them—"honest with good looking after."
They were fond of "a dram," too, and would drink the white Jamaica rum fresh and hot from the stills. It used to make their eyes start almost out of their sockets. They liked it for that very reason. But Dr. Reikie had on board a dram, which he gave them when they helped him off with his curios, that they liked even better than this—namely, what is called "Cape smoke," about the strongest and vilest spirit there is. The surgeon found it handy for keeping small specimens in.
"Ah, dat is good, massa," a nigger would say as soon as he had recovered his breath after swallowing half a tumblerful neat—"dat is good; it makes me say 'Huh!'"
Fond of a good joke some of those niggers were, too. They seemed to know that man-o'-war sailors will eat almost anything.
One day when the cotton was in "pod" some niggers enticed a party of blue-jackets into a plantation.