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Couldn' sleep a wink," said Ebony one day, some weeks after the return of Orlando, when, according to custom, he and the native missionary and his wife, with the chiefs Tomeo and Buttchee, assembled for a consultation in the palm-grove. "What have you been thinking about?" asked Orley. "Yous fadder, ob course."
Tomeo and Buttchee turned looks of inquiry on Ebony as if to say, "What d'ye say to that, you nigger?" But the nigger said nothing for some moments. He seemed not to have viewed the matter in that light. "Well, I don'no," he said at last with a deep sigh, "I t'ought I'd get hold ob suthin' when I kitch hold ob dat dream.
"Of course," repeated the boy, "but what have you been thinking about him anything new?" "Not zackly noo," returned the negro, with a very earnest look, "but ole t'oughts turned in a noo d'rection. Sit down, Tomeo, an' I will tell you an' try to forgit yous hat if poss'ble.
We can only add that Waroonga and Betsy returned home, that a stalwart son of Tomeo went in after years, to Sugar-loaf Island, and carried off Lippy as his bride, along with her mother; that a handsome son of Ongoloo took revenge by carrying Zariffa away from Ratinga, without her mother; that regular and frequent intercourse was set up between the two islands by means of a little schooner; that Ebony stuck to his master and mistress through thick and thin to a good old age; that Orlando went to England, studied medicine, and returned again to Ratinga with a fair daughter of that favoured land; that Wapoota's morals improved by degrees; that Buttchee became more reconciled to European dress as he grew older; and that the inhabitants of the two islands generally became wiser and happier though of course not perfect through the benign influence of that Gospel which teaches man to do to others as he would have others do to him.
"We cannot move," said Tomeo and Buttchee together, "because we w " Together they ceased giving the reason it was not necessary! "Oh dear!" said Ebony, opening his great eyes to their widest. "You no kin lib long at dat rate. Better die on deck if you mus' die; more heasy for you to breeve up dar, an' more comf'rable to fro you overboard w'en you's got it over."
All the more that Ebony's views were emphatically backed up by the chiefs Tomeo and Buttchee, both of whom asserted that Zeppa had never failed in anything he had ever undertaken, and that it was impossible he should fail now. Thus encouraged, Orlando returned home to comfort his mother. But Orley's mother refused to be comforted.
It was the church bell a small one, to be sure, but sweetly toned which was being rung violently to call in all the fighting men from the woods and fields around, for at that time the Ratingans had to be prepared for the reception of foes as well as friends. A trusty chief had been placed in charge of the village by Tomeo before he left.
Surprise at this mode of proceeding caused the natives to receive him with less violence than before. Their curiosity led them to listen to what he had to say. Then a chief named Tomeo took him by the shoulders, placed his nose against that of Waroonga and rubbed it.
"Come, you yaller-cheeked chiefs; you's die if you no make a heffort. Come on deck, breeve de fresh air. Git up a happetite. Go in for salt pork, plum duff, and lop-scouse, an' you'll git well 'fore you kin say Jack Rubinson." Tomeo and Buttchee looked up at the jovial negro and smiled imbecile smiles they were.
The bare idea of being once more able to walk quite excited the poor man, and his hands trembled as he tried to assist his friend in fixing them. "Keep your hands away altogether," said Zeppa; "you only delay me. There now, they're as tight as two masts. Hold on to me while I raise you up." At that moment Tomeo, Buttchee, Ebony, Ongoloo, Wapoota, and Orlando came upon the scene.
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