With the tears dropping very fast from his eyes, Tim tied Tip in the narrow place which was to serve him as home, at least until Captain Pratt's intentions concerning him could be known, and then returned to the cabin as the steward had told him.
But as he started to go, Tip looked up at him so piteously, uttering a whine that sounded in Tim's ears so sad, that he ran back, knelt down by his dumb friend, and kissed him over and over again, saying, as he did so: "Do be good, Tip. You don't know how bad it makes me feel to have to leave you here, an' I'd do anything in the world to have you go with me every step I take; but you've got to stay here, Tip, an' I've got to leave you."
Then as the dog whined again, he cried, passionately, "Oh, what lonesome things we are, Tip! an' we ain't got anybody but each other in all this wide world"; and with both arms around Tip's neck, he gave way to a perfect flood of tears. "Now do be good, Tip, an' don't make me feel so bad," he said, as he wiped his eyes on the dog's head, and prepared once more to leave him.
It seemed almost as if the dog understood what his master had said, for he stopped whining, and made no sound, but kept wagging his little stump of a tail until Tim did not dare to look at him any longer.
He turned resolutely away, and, with eyes still blinded with tears, walked down into the cabin, where he was soon busily engaged in the not very pleasant occupation of cleaning knives.
[to be continued.]
[THE FLAMINGO.]
The flamingo is a beautiful inhabitant of all marshy regions in the tropics. It is found in great numbers in South America and the West Indies, and in Africa, Southern Asia, and China. It is a bird of wondrous beauty. It has a slender, gracefully formed body, long thin legs, and a very long, flexible neck. When it stands erect, its neck stretched in the air, its head is fully six feet from the ground.
The feathers on the body of the flamingo are white, delicately tinted with rose-color. Its wings, which are very large, are of the most brilliant scarlet, and the long quills are black. It is a very sociable bird, and is always seen in flocks of several hundred. The appearance of a flock of flamingoes, as described by travellers, is one of startling magnificence. Seen from afar, wading or swimming in the inlets of salt-marshes—for the flamingo loves best to keep near the sea-coast—one would think that an immense army of red-coated soldiers was encamped there, instead of a flock of harmless, defenseless birds. In South America the flamingo is called "the soldier-bird" by the natives, and Humboldt, the great German traveller and naturalist, relates a very amusing story, which he gives as an actual occurrence, illustrating the fitness of this name. A new township of Angostura had been formed; but the inhabitants were scarcely settled in their new homes when, one morning, a wild cry of alarm spread through the little village that an immense body of men in red garments, probably hostile Indians, was advancing. Such weapons as were at hand were hastily seized, and all the men rushed out to defend their homes. Suddenly the supposed hostile army rose in the air, and forming a long line of flashing scarlet against the clear blue sky, took its course in the direction of the great salt-marshes around the mouth of the Orinoco.