Two days later still, and another feast was given.  On this occasion Buzzby was the host, and Buzzby’s cottage was the scene.  It was a joyful meeting, too, and a jolly one to boot, for O’Riley was there, and Peter Grim, and Amos Parr, and David Mizzle, and Mivins—­in short, the entire crew of the lost Dolphin—­captain, mates, surgeon, and all.  Fred and his father were also there, and old Mr. Singleton, and a number of other friends, so that all the rooms in the house had to be thrown open, and even then Mrs. Buzzby had barely room to move.  It was on this occasion that Buzzby related to his shipmates how Mrs. Ellice had escaped from drowning on the night they were attacked by pirates on board the West Indiaman.  He took occasion to relate the circumstances just before the “people from the house” arrived, and as the reader may perhaps prefer Buzzby’s account to ours, we give it as it was delivered.

“You see, it happened this way,” began Buzzby.

“Hand us a coal, Buzzby, to light my pipe, before ye begin,” said Peter Grim.

“Ah! then, howld yer tongue, Blunderbore,” cried O’Riley, handing the glowing coal demanded, with as much nonchalance as if his fingers were made of cast-iron.

“Well, ye see,” resumed Buzzby, “when poor Mrs. Ellice wos pitched overboard, as I seed her with my own two eyes—­”

“Stop, Buzzby,” said Mivins; “’ow was ’er ’ead at the time?”

“Shut up, Mivins,” cried several of the men; “go on, Buzzby.”

“Well, I think her ’ead wos sou’-west, if it warn’t nor’-east.  Anyhow it wos pintin’ somewhere or other round the compass.  But, as I wos sayin’, when Mrs. Ellice struck the water (an’ she told me all about it herself, ye must know) she sank, and then she comed up, and didn’t know how it wos, but she caught hold of an oar that wos floatin’ close beside her, and screamed for help; but no help came, for it wos dark, and the ship had disappeared, so she gave herself up for lost.  But in a little the oar struck agin a big piece o’ the wreck o’ the pirate’s boat, and she managed to clamber upon it, and lay there, a’most dead with cold, till mornin’.  The first thing she saw when day broke forth wos a big ship, bearin’ right down on her, and she wos jist about run down when one o’ the men observed her from the bow.

“‘Hard a-port!’ roared the man.

“‘Port it is,’ cried the man at the wheel, an’ round went the ship like a duck, jist missin’ the bit of wreck as she passed.  A boat wos lowered, and Mrs. Ellice wos took aboard.  Well, she found that the ship wos bound for the Sandwich Islands, and as they didn’t mean to touch at any port in passin’, Mrs. Ellice had to go on with her.  Misfortins don’t come single, howsiver.  The ship wos wrecked on a coral reef, and the crew had to take to their boats, which they did, an’ got safe to land; but the land they got to wos an out-o’-the-way island among the Feejees, and a spot where ships never come, so they had to make up their minds to stop there.”