34 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



" Bon jour , monsieur I n 



I looked up, and saw two brown-skinned maidens. 

 One was a little mulattress, about ten years old ; the 

 other was Marie — light-hearted, sunny Marie — in 

 whose veins flowed the blood of three races. The 

 blood of the African showed in her wavy hair and full 

 lips, and told what was the original stock with which 

 that of the Carib was mingled ; and that of the jovial 

 Frenchman, who had wandered to these wilds years 

 and years ago, gave the roundness and suppleness of 

 limb, the quick merry eye, the oval cheek, and little 

 hands and feet. 



' "Bon jour ', Mademoiselle Marie: where are you 

 going?" 



" Pour chercher les ecrevisse " — To look for cray- 

 fish. 



Crayfish ! Why, just what I wanted ; for I had 

 promised one of the professors in Washington to make 

 collections of these very animals. I glanced up through 

 a hole in the leafy roof above me and judged it was 

 about ten o'clock, unless the sun's rays were refracted 

 in coming through. 



" Have you anything for me to eat, Marie?" 



""Yes, monsieur." 



" Then I will go with you." 



" It gives me much fl/aisir, monsieur." 



"Well, lead the way." 



Reader, if you look in a work on natural history for 

 information regarding the crayfish, you will find it 

 there given as a "long-tailed decapod;" and, pur- 

 suing the subject still farther, you will see that it is 

 also crustacean — a " decapod crustacean." And thus 

 you might follow the author up to the branch articu- 



