"Not so werry good," responded the Old Sailor. "The Queen o' Spades had run plumb straight into a small harbor, sort o' horseshoe shaped, with a long narrer p'int runnin' out on each side. There she were stuck fast in the sand, an' a werry consid'able number o' half-nakid savidges standin' on the shore a-grinnin' an' wavin' spears. Putty soon a big canoe started out from the shore an' come towards the ship. In the starn o' her there were a werry tall savidge wearin' a werry big red coat with one epaulet. Cap'n Philander Montgomery Boggs sez he to me, sez he: 'That are the chief, an' he are a-wearin' the coat o' some English ossifer wot's bin wracked here.' An' that bein' werry plain fur to see, I didn't say nothin' at all. Waal, w'en the canoe got close 'nuff we could see that them was the werry thinnest an' starvedest lookin' lot o' savidges ever knowed. W'y, their ribs stuck out so their sides looked like old-fashioned washboards, an' their faces looked like overgrowed English walnuts. They pulled up the canoe a few yards off an' made signs that they was hungry, an' they looked it. So the Cap'n, seein' that we was there thort as how we'd better make friends with 'em, an' he inwited the King—the feller in the red coat—to come aboard an' git some grub. The steward sot out a fine lunch in the first-cabin saloon, an' the Cap'n he showed the King aroun' while it were a-gettin' ready. We soon found out as how that there King could talk consid'able English, but he wouldn't tell where he larned it. Waal, I wish you could 'a' seed that there King eat. The steward put out a lunch for six, an' blow me fur pickles ef the bloomin' one-epauletted cannibal didn't eat it all, an' holler fur more.
"'Give poor savidge puddin',' sez he.
"'Look a-here, Kingsy,' sez the Cap'n, 'how long is it sence you filled your hold?'
"'Werry poor island dis,' sez the King—'werry poor. Eat nuts an' wild berries. Poor savidge werry hungry.'
"'Steward,' sez the Cap'n, 'fill him up solid. Give him some o' those doughnuts ye make fur the babbus in Al Kamakh.'
"Waal, byme-by the King got 'nuff, an' went ashore. He hadn't bin there an hour afore we seed a hull regiment o' savidges to work astarn o' the ship. They was drivin' logs down into the water, an' droppin' big rocks in an' shovellin' sand.
"'By the great hook block!' yells the Cap'n, 'they're a-buildin' a breakwater astarn o' us so's we can't git out o' this 'ere trap!'
"An' that were wot they was a-doin'. Nex' thing we knowed canoes commenced fur to come off ag'in, an' the hull of the King's court come aboard. There was Squilli Gee, keeper o' the Red Coat; Solo Primo, lord high berry-picker; Effie Tombi, nut-cracker to his Majesty; Toto Poto, lord high admiral o' the canoe fleet; an' Kala Poobi, secretary o' the palace. They was mostly joints, ribs, an' cheek-bones, them fellers, an' all they wanted was a square meal. Squilli Gee informed us most politely that ef we didn't feed 'em they would fill us full o' holes. So we fed 'em. Them fellers numbered jess thirty, an' they stowed away purwisions fur a dinner fur a hundred fust-cabin passingers. They went ashore, an' at six o'clock in the evenin' the King comes off ag'in, bringin' his wife an' fam'ly. There were jess eight o' his wife, an' the hull o' 'em weighed about 600 pounds. There was thirty-seven o' his fam'ly, all so thin that w'en they stood sideways ye couldn't see 'em. One o' 'em fell through a scupper into the sea, an' he were so thin he couldn't float; so he were drowned. An' wot d'ye s'pose the bloomin' King sez?"
"Why, what did he say?" asked George.