Just below, on the shore of the island, a large willow-tree had been overthrown by the tempest on the day of the battle, and lay prone in the water, but still attached to the land by its roots. The nuts were juicy and sweet, but the day was so pleasant that Bevis presently put the nuts down and extended himself on his back. High above hung the long brown cones of the fir, and the dark green of its branches seemed to deepen the blue of the sky. With half-closed eyes he gazed up into the azure, till Mark feared he would go to sleep. “Tell me a story,” he said. “I’ll tickle you, and you tell me a story. Here’s a parrot’s feather.” It was a wood-pigeon’s, knocked out as the bird struck a branch in his rude haste. Mark tickled Bevis’s face and neck. “Tell me a story,” he said. “My grandpa is the man for stories,” said Bevis. “If you ask him to tell you the story of his walking-stick, he’ll tell you all about it, and then two or three more; only you must be careful to ask him for the walking-stick one first, and then he’ll give you five shillings.” “Regular moke,” said Mark. “He stumped into London with the stick and a bundle, didn’t he, and made five millions of money?” “Heaps more than that.” “Now tell me a story.” “Tickle me then--very nicely.” “Now go on.” Volume Three, Chapter V. NEW FORMOSA--THE STORY OF THE OTHER SIDE. “Once upon a time,” said Bevis, closing his eyes now, “there was a great traveller who went sailing all round every sea--” “Except the New Sea,” said Mark. “Yes, except the New Sea which we found, and went riding over all the lands and countries, and climbing up all the mountains, and tramping through all the forests, and shooting the elephants and Indians and sticking pigs, and skinning boa-constrictors, and finding magicians--” “What did the magicians do?” “O! they did nothing very particular, one turned himself into a tree and was chopped up and burned in a bonfire and walked out of the smoke, and little things like that; and he went spying everywhere, and learned everything, and--” “Go on--what next?” “He went on till he said it was all no good, because if you went into the biggest forest that ever was you walked through it in about three years--” “Like they did through Africa?” “Just like it; and if you climbed up a mountain, after a day or two you got to the top; and if you sailed across the sea, if it was the greatest sea there ever was, you came to the other side in six months or so; so that it did not matter what you did, there was always an end to it.” “Very stupid.” “Very stupid, very; and he got tired of it always coming to the other side. He did so hate the other side, and he used to dawdle through the forests and lose his way, and he used to pull down the sails and let the ship go anyhow, and never touch the helm. But it was no use he always dawdled through the forest after awhile, and--” “The wind always took the ship somewhere.”