reached a Desert Island in the closet.  Here the rescued party put up a tent made of a table cloth providentially snatched from the raging billows, and from two o’clock until four, passed six weeks on the island supported only by a piece of candle, a box of matches, and two peppermint lozenges.  It was at this time that it became necessary to account for Polly’s existence among them, and this was only effected by an alarming sacrifice of their morality; Hickory and Wan Lee instantly became Pirates, and at once elected Polly as their Queen.  The royal duties, which seemed to be purely maternal, consisted in putting the Pirates to bed after a day of rapine and bloodshed, and in feeding them with liquorice water through a quill in a small bottle.  Limited as her functions were, Polly performed them with inimitable gravity and unquestioned sincerity.  Even when her companions sometimes hesitated from actual hunger or fatigue and forgot their guilty part, she never faltered.  It was her real existence—­her other life of being washed, dressed, and put to bed at certain hours by her mother was the illusion.

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Doubt and scepticism came at last,—­and came from Wan Lee!  Wan Lee of all creatures!  Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanical performance of a Pirate’s duties—­a perfect imitation like all his household work—­had been their one delight and fascination!

It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman with the indiscriminate slaughter of all on board—­a spectacle on which the round blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternal tolerance, and they were burying the booty—­two table spoons and a thimble in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose.

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“Melican boy pleenty foolee!  Melican boy no Pilat!” said the little Chinaman, substituting “l’s” for “r’s” after his usual fashion.

“Wotcher say?” said Hickory, reddening with sudden confusion.

“Melican boy’s papa heap lickee him—­spose him leal Pilat,” continued Wan Lee, doggedly.  “Melican boy Pilat inside housee; Chinee boy Pilat outside housee.  First chop Pilat.”

Staggered by this humiliating statement, Hickory recovered himself in character.  “Ah!  Ho!” he shrieked, dancing wildly on one leg, “Mutiny and Splordinashun!  Way with him to the yard arm.”

“Yald alm—­heap foolee!  Allee same clothes hoss for washee washee.”

It was here necessary for the Pirate Queen to assert her authority, which, as I have before stated was somewhat confusingly maternal.  “Go to bed instantly without your supper,” she said, seriously.  “Really, I never saw such bad pirates.  Say your prayers, and see that you’re up early to church to-morrow.”  It should be explained that in deference to Polly’s proficiency as a preacher, and probably as a relief to their uneasy consciences, Divine Service had always been held on the Island.  But Wan Lee continued:—­