'O yes, I shall. It will only be made of wood, painted over in white.
There's no end of feeding them things if one has 'em alive. Besides it
will look just as pretty; and won't bite. And I know a friend of mine
that one of them creatures flew at, and gave him such a bang as almost
broke his leg, only for throwing a stone at it, out of mere play. They
are mortal spiteful, if you happen to hurt them when you're in their
reach.'
He then begged them to go over to his island, which proved to be what
Eugenia had taken for a mass of rubbish. They would fain have been
excused crossing a plank which he called a bridge, but Lionel would not
be denied.
'Now here,' said he, 'when my island's finished, I shall have something
these young ladies will like; and that's a lamb.'
'Alive, or dead?' cried Lionel.
'Alive,' he replied, 'for I shall have good pasture in a little bit of
ground just by, where I shall keep me a cow; and here will be grass
enough upon my island to keep it from starving on Sundays, and for now
and then, when I've somebody come to see me. And when it's fit for
killing, I can change it with the farmer down the lane, for another
young one, by a bargain I've agreed with him for already; for I don't
love to run no risks about a thing for mere pleasure.'
'Your place will be quite a paradise,' said Lionel.
'Why, indeed, sir, I think I've earned having a little recreeting, for I
worked hard enough for it, before I happened of meeting with my first
wife.'
'O, ho! so you began with marrying a fortune?'
'Yes, sir, and very pretty she was too, if she had not been so puny. But
she was always ailing. She cost me a mort of money to the potecary
before she went off. And she was a tedious while a dying, poor soul!'
'Your first wife? surely you have not been twice married already?'
'Yes, I have. My second wife brought me a very pretty fortune too. I
can't say but I've rather had the luck of it, as far as I've gone yet
awhile.'
They now repassed the plank, and were conducted to an angle, in which a
bench was placed close to the chinese rails, which was somewhat shaded
by a willow, that grew in a little piece of stagnant water on the other
side. A syringa was planted in front, and a broom-tree on the right
united it with the willow; in the middle there was a deal table.
'Now, young ladies,' said Mr. Dubster, 'if you have a taste to breathe a
little fresh country air, here's where I advise you to take your rest.
When I come to this place first, my arbour, as I call this, had no look
out, but just to the fields, so I cut away them lilacs, and now there's
a good pretty look out. And it's a thing not to be believed what a sight
of people and coaches, and gentlemen's whiskeys and stages, and flys,
and wagons, and all sorts of things as ever you can think of, goes by
all day long. I often think people's got but little to do at home.'