"Hooray-y-y-y!" shouted Dyke again, and the two lion cubs looked over the packing-case in which they were confined, wonderingly. "Look at him! A regular half laugh. We shall have the whole laugh soon. But there, I mustn't stop, wasting time here." "Yes; stay a little longer, little un. I want to talk to you," said Emson. "About my being such a nice, good boy--so brave and so noodley? No, you don't. I'm off!" "No, no; I will not say a word about that. I want to talk to you." "But the ostriches want feeding." "They must wait," said Emson sadly. "They've made us wait for profit. Look here, little un; sit down." "Well, if you want it. But, honour bright: no buttering me." "I want to talk about our future." "Well, I can tell you that, Joe. We're going to make a big success of the farm." "No, boy; we are going to give it up." "What! Sell it?" "No; I should be ashamed to take money off a man for so worthless a bargain. We are going to scrape together what skins and feathers are ours, so as to pay our way, and going home." "What! empty?" cried Dyke. "That we won't." "We must, boy. I shall never be myself till I have been under a good doctor." "What nonsense, Joe. There, let's talk about something else.--I say, how playful the cubs get; but they're more like big Saint Bernard pups than kittens." "Let us talk about our future, boy," said Emson rather sternly. "I was thinking bitterly of our prospects when I was sickening for this fever, and I have thought more about them since I have been lying here helpless; and as soon as I can get about, we must prepare for going home." "Beaten! Go home, and say: `It's of no use, father; we're a poor, helpless pair.'" "We must accept the inevitable, little un." "There isn't any inevitable when you're my age, Joe. One always used to feel on a bad day that sooner or later the fish would begin to bite." "Yes, but we used to change to another place." "Sometimes. Well, let's change to another place, then. But it would be a pity. We've got never-failing water here, and even if the lions and baboons do come sometimes, it's a capital place. I say, Joe, have another try." "You've quite changed your tune, old fellow," said Emson mournfully. "Do you remember?" "Why, of course. What fellow doesn't remember what a donkey he has been? I've often thought of it while you were ill, Joe, and of what a nuisance I must have been while you were so patient. And I said to myself--There, never mind that--I say, Joe, do you really mean for us to go back beaten?" "Yes." "Not have one more try!" "No: I am too much broken down." "But I'm not. I'm getting full of pluck and work now, and I'll do anything to keep things going till you come round." Emson shook his head sadly. "I say it is of no use, my lad; we are trying an impossibility." "Then let's try something else. What do you think old Morgenstern said?" "That we were wasting time over the ostriches."