The Pole is cracking---- TALBOYS. Creacking. All the difference in the world between these two words. The insertion of the letter E converts danger into safety--trepidation into confidence--a Tent into a Rock. BULLER. I have always forgot to ask if the Camp is insured? NORTH. An insurance was effected, on favourable terms, on the Swiss Giantess before she came into my possession--the Trustees are answerable for the Van--the texture of the Tents is tough to resist the Winds--and the stuff itself was re-steeped during winter in pyroligneous acid of my own invention, which has been found as successful with canvass as with timber. Deeside, the Pavilion and her fair Sisterhood are impervious alike to Wet and Dry Rot--Fire and Water. TALBOYS. You can have no idea, sir, of the beautiful running of our Drains. When were they dug? NORTH. Yestreen--at dusk. Not a field in Scotland the worse of being drained--my lease from Monzie allows it--a good landlord deserves a good tenant; and though it is rather late in the year for such operations, I ventured on the experiment--partly for sake of the field itself, and partly for sake of self-preservation. Not pioneers, and miners, and sappers alone--the whole Force were employed under the Knave of Spades--open drains meanwhile--to be all covered in--with tiles--ere we shift quarters. TALBOYS. A continuance of this weather for a day or two will bring them up in shoals from the Loch--Undoubtedly we shall have Eels. I delight in drain-angling. Silver Eels! Gold Fish! You shall be wheeled out, my dear sir, in Swing, and the hand of your own Talboys shall disengage the first "Fish, without fins" from the Wizard's Hook. SEWARD. And he shall be sketched by his own Seward, in a moment of triumph, and lithographed by Schenck for the forthcoming Edition of Tom Stoddart. BULLER. And his own Buller shall make the chips fly like Michael Angelo--and from the marble block evolve a Christopher Piscator not unworthy a Steele--or a Macdonald. NORTH. Lay aside your tackle, Talboys, and let us talk. TALBOYS. I am never so talkative as over my tackle. BULLER. Lay it aside then, Talboys, at Mr North's request. TALBOYS.