“Sure it is a blissing intirely that I was so saving of the sugar, using the sweet sap from the canes in the swamp as offen as iver I could to make it last. And a notable favor iv Crummie not to go dhry. True for ye, ma’am, wid the sugar, and the milk, and the eggs, and the fresh fruit itself I can make a dessert fit for the royal family to sit down to, let alone the dinner that will go before it, wid fresh fish and ham, and roast chicken and pigeon pie. And the idea iv our having company to dinner, ma’am. Sure it’s in a dhrame I’m thinking I am all the time. Plaise, ma’am, will ye be so good as to pinch me, to see if I’m awake itself?” said Judith to Miss Conyers, who had come into the kitchen for more water for her flowers. “Don’t you think if you were to put your finger to the hot stove, it would do as well, Judith?” laughed Britomarte. “Faix, no, ma’am. I niver could abide a burn. And troth if it is a dhrame itself, I don’t know as I care to wake. To think I used to say, whin we came into this new house, that if we had only one neighbor living across the fields there some-ers, where we could go and take tay oncet in a while, it would be pleasanter like. And sure now me words are coming thrue, for if we haven’t a neighbor itself to come and take tay wid us, we have a company iv gintlemen and officers coming to dine wid us. Troth, it is a dhrame, sure enough.” Miss Conyers left Judith to her work and her wanderings of fancy, and returned to the parlor to complete the decorations of that pleasant room. By and by Justin returned with a large string of fresh fish, which he took into the kitchen and handed over to Judith. As he left the kitchen, he met, coming out of the opposite door, the pirate captain. “Ah, you feel better to-day. You feel able to be up?” said Justin. “Yes. Come in, I want a word with you,” said the man. Justin went into his bedroom, which, for the last two days, had been almost entirely given up to the prisoner. “Well?” said Justin, taking a chair and seating himself. “Well,” said the prisoner, throwing himself into another chair, “there is a Yankee man-of-war in the cove below.” “The United States sloop of war _Xyphias_, commanded by Captain Yetsom, is out there.” “Exactly. And the officers are all coming here to dine to-day?” “The captain, and as many officers as he can bring, are coming.” “Precisely. So I understood from the gabble of the women flying past my door. Now I tell you what, Mr. Rosenthal, I wish to surrender myself to the captain of the _Xyphias_.” “You will do well,” said Justin, with a feeling of intense relief; “that will be your best possible course, and it will save me from the distressing duty of delivering up a man whom I have sheltered in his need and nursed in his illness.” “And shaken and choked in his cups, and handcuffed and locked up in his sleep, ha! ha! ha! ho! ho! ho!” laughed the man.