"Why, Peggy, I'm fifteen--nearly, and if I live I'm bound to get older and bigger."
"No, no, Dick, you can marry Beeboo, and I shall get spliced, as the sailors call it, to Burly Bill."
The afternoon wore away, and Beeboo came up to summon "the chillun" to tea.
Up they started, forgetting all about budding love, flirtation, and future marriages, and made a rush for the companion-ladder.
"Wowff--wowff!" barked Brawn, and the 'gators on shore and the tapirs in the woods lifted heads to listen, while parrots shrieked and monkeys chattered and scolded among the lordly forest trees.
"Wowff--wowff!" he barked. "Who says cakes and butter?"
The night fell, and Burly Bill came on board with his banjo, and his great bass voice, which was as sweet as the tone of a 'cello.
Bill was funnier than usual to-night, and when Beeboo brought him a big tumbler of rosy rum punch, made by herself and sweetened with honey, he was merrier still.
Then to complete his happiness Beeboo lit his pipe.
She puffed away at it for some time as usual, by way of getting it in working order.