“Wal, Mr. Long,” said Captain Corbet, “I s’pose you’re kind o’ blamin’ me; but what could I do? Ef a man has a babby, mustn’t he nuss it?” “No, he musn’t,” said Mr. Long; “he must make his wife attend to household matters, and keep his engagements.” Captain Corbet stared with a look of horror and astonishment at Mr. Long. “Wal, sir,” he said, with modest firmness, “in my humble opinion, sir, a babby is a babby, an’ flesh an’ blood is flesh an’ blood; an’ I don’t care who says they ain’t. Ef you’d see that there babby, sir,” he continued, warming up in a glow of fond parental feeling,--“ef you’d a-seen that there babby, as I’ve seen him,--a crowin’, an’ a pullin’ of my har, an’ a sayin’, Ga-ga-ga,--‘you’d-- “Mr. Simmons,” said Mr. Long, suddenly, “have you hunted for the stones?” “O, yes, everywhere.” “And did you find nothing?” “Nothing.” “There it is,” resumed Mr. Long. “A whole week worse than lost. We lost Monday. We started Tuesday, and sailed nearly all day. We had about two hours’ work, and then the boat went adrift. All Wednesday wo were wandering about the bay. Thursday came, and we didn’t find the boys till the day was well gone, and then stopping at O’Rafferty’s and coming here took up the remainder of the time.” “Well, we had Friday to ourselves,” said Mr. Simmons, with a pleasant smile. He was an amiable man, and always looked on the bright side of things. “Yes, we had,” said Mr. Long, “but unfortunately we accomplished nothing. We had a long journey, and came back empty-handed.” “At any rate, we had the time.” “But that time was lost.” “O, well,” said Mr. Simmons, “it was one of those days which everybody must expect to have. We tried hard, but were unsuccessful. I don’t, by any means, call such a day lost. We gave ourselves up thoroughly to science.” “Well, call it a well-spent day,” said Mr. Long, “and what of it? We will count it in; but after that--what? Saturday came, and we had to go after the boys again; now our time’s up, and to-night we must go back again. We have had a week; and out of it we have been able to spend, at the very utmost, only one day and two hours. Well. I don’t know how it strikes you, but I call it hard.” “It would, indeed, have been hard if things had turned out as we feared,” said Mr. Simmons. “O, of course I feel all that. I am only lamenting that these accidents should have happened, and that, when we came for a certain purpose, we should have been unable to carry it out. And see how things have gone on. We are out of provisions, and have to lay in a stock of meal, and molasses, and pork.” “I’m sure, meal makes very good food,” said Mr. Simmons. “Hot corn-cake is rather a delicacy, and molasses is very good to eat with it.” “After all, I don’t care anything about these things,” continued Mr. Long. “What I do care about is the loss of the minerals.” “O, they’re not lost.”