Grace was a little apart from the others, reclining in a steamer chair.

“Are you very, very tired, Gracie?” asked Walter, coming to her side.

“Pretty tired,” she answered, smiling up into his face.  “Why? did you want me to do anything?”

“Oh, no! no, indeed! but I was just thinking that now that we have two ventriloquists here, we might have some fun—­for so far as I know the folks from Pleasant Plains don’t know anything about the extraordinary powers of Cousins Ronald and Hugh—­and I hoped you weren’t too tired to enjoy it.”

“I don’t believe I am,” she laughed; “and I think I shall enjoy it if papa doesn’t send me to bed too soon.  It was very good in you to think of me, Walter.”

“Was it, when you are the girl that always thinks of everybody else?”

“Not always, Walter.  I am afraid I very often think of myself first.”

“Do you?  I never knew it before,” he laughed; then hurrying to old Mr. Lilburn’s side, whispered something in his ear.

The old gentleman smiled, and gave a nod of assent.  “I like to please you, laddie,” he said in an undertone.  “So does Hugh, and mayhap atween us we can accomplish something worth while.”

“Oh, thank you,” returned Walter.  “I do think, cousin, that a little fun would do us all good.  We’ve been dining heartily—­at least I have—­and I think a good laugh assists digestion.”

Hugh sat near, chatting with Captain Raymond.  Walter now turned to him with a whispered request which he seemed to grant as readily as his father had the one made of him.

At that Rosie and Lucilla, who were watching Walter with apparent interest in his proceedings, exchanged a glance of mingled amusement and satisfaction, while Grace, whose eyes were following his movements, laughed softly to herself; for she was in the mood for a bit of fun, and saw in all this the promise of some.

“Dear me, what a lot o’ folks! and all lookin’ so comfortable-like.  They’ve had a good dinner,—­or supper, whichever they call it—­you bet, Joe, while we’re as hungry as bears,” said a rough, masculine voice which seemed to come from a spot close in Captain Raymond’s rear.

Before the sentence was half finished every other voice was hushed and all eyes were turned in the direction from which the sound seemed to come.  Everyone was startled for an instant, but by the time the sentence was finished the captain looked perfectly calm and cool.

“Who are you? and how did you come aboard the vessel?” he asked.

“In the boat, sir; same as the rest o’e company,” was the reply in the same voice.

“Without waiting for an invitation, eh?”

“Humph! might ‘a’ missed it if we’d waited.  Say, capting, are you mean enough to let us fellows go hungry when you have a vessel full o’ good things for eatin’?  To say nothing of a pocket full o’ tin?”

“If any would not work, neither should he eat,” quoted the captain.  “What work have you two been about to-day?”