The Skipper came to me that evening.
"What's all this about rubies and diamonds and precious stones generally?" he asked of me.
"Who is talking about such absurd things?" said I.
"Why, that damn loblolly boy!" said the Skipper. "He says he found a fortune in the cave, and that when he woke you said it was all nonsense; that then he went back to the place where he left them, and that some one had stuffed a dead baby in on top of 'em. But he says they are all there, and he calls me and God to witness that they are his."
"I don't see what good they will do him," said I. "Supposing they are there, the place is closed to us forever; but, Captain, I am positive that there is nothing of the kind concealed in the cave. So let that end this nonsense."
"Dream, I suppose," ejaculated the Skipper.
I nodded my head. The Minion was standing near, and heard the last part of our conversation. He jumped up and down with rage, he rolled on the ground, he bit the earth. We stood laughing at him for a few moments, and then went about some of the business that every camp has for workers at any moment.
The Minion was constantly stealing our lights, or flint and steel, our candles, which we had had in use for some time, a few of which we found among the pirates' stores. Cynthia thought that there was some good in the boy, and insisted that if we were all of us somewhat kinder to the little wretch that he would respond to our teachings. She, with her unselfish generosity, began to teach the lad an hour each day, but I never saw that it improved him in the very least. On the contrary, it taught him a little more of the ways of people and things, and showed him how he could annoy us more frequently than before.
Thus we lived for some weeks. Nothing unforeseen happened, and we were fairly comfortable. Lacelle and Zalee also were beginning to pick up a few words of English, and thus we could learn much from them that we found it impossible to know before. They seemed to have attached themselves to us permanently. But we had the best of the bargain. They ate little or nothing of our food, subsisting, as far as I could discover, upon the wild fruits, which Zalee brought to us in abundance. Added to this, they performed most of the menial services, so that the Bo's'n said that he felt "like a gentleman onct more."
When you were a little boy, Adoniah, I remember that you asked your mother if she used thorns for pins when she was a little girl. Children usually look upon their parents as having lived in past ages, and being of the antediluvian period. When you asked the question, I remember that I laughed heartily, if a little sadly, for it reminded me of the morning that I came down the hill to the brook and saw Cynthia pinning up her gown.