Encouraged by her silence, the boy continued:—
“Which, Teenie, some fine mornin’ I’ll find myse’f a sea-captain on a big ship, and then I’ll ax ye to be my old ’oman, and we’ll sail the blue seas over and over, and you’ll never want lollipops and sweets.”
“Which, Teenie——”
The look of disdain, and the merry laugh of Teenie as she went running after pussy, put a speedy end to Johnnie’s wooing.
That day Johnnie went below with a finger in his mouth, and looking very done indeed.
“Girls is curous critters,” he said to himself. “Ah! I don’t think there’s much to beat an old mother arter all.”
CHAPTER V
ASHORE ON A CANNIBAL ISLAND
One day, what seemed a beautiful green cloud appeared in the north-west. It seemed to hang ’twixt sea and horizon.
Teenie was convinced it was fairy-land. It was no cloud, however. A peep through the captain’s long glass brought into view not only the tall cocoanut trees with their waving tops, but the trees and bushes beneath, and the coral sands, on which numerous black and semi-nude figures were running about, and even pointing to the ship.