SUPPER. 165 



protection, and the Christian has made a supper the emblem of his 

 religion. Then what constitutes a supper, the food and its prepara- 

 tion, apart from its physiological bearings, is worthy of thoughtful 

 study. Almost every one can remember having eaten of simple 

 meals that were as good as any king's ; sometimes they were found 

 at a private table, where white hands that were dear to him have 

 spread the cloth ; sometimes they have been served in some out- 

 of-the-way Gallic auberge, when the hungry traveller was even 

 doubting if in a place so destitute he could find anything to eat ; 

 and again, it may be, they have been spread in that chief of all 

 hostelries, that reckless home of self-reliance, the camp beneath 

 the greenwood tree. Oh, dear beyond all cafes, and green when 

 Verey's shall be forgotten, is that spreading blanket-cloth, those 

 bark platters, and flashing fires, by which so many meals have been 

 cooked and heartily eaten ! Don't laugh, Epicurean, who reads 

 these lines in a big city, where for years fancy cooks have manu-^ 

 factured spiced dinners at Midas prices, and do not say it was 

 only the appetite, and not the dinner that was marvellously good. 

 Though it is easy to cook when you have skillet and spider, bake 

 oven and basting spoon, griddle, pan, sauce-dish, pot, skewers, 

 rotary jacks, and a patent kitchen range, yet still there are more 

 good meals cooked in this world without them than with them, 

 and one of these was our last dinner on Bonda Key. 



There had been a long hunt that had lasted from daybreak 

 till almost sunset, and we were tired and hungry, and a certain 

 feeling of approaching separation had come over us that made 

 exertion necessary, and so we went to work with a will*to cook 

 a good meal. It is true, our utensils for cooking were few and 

 simple ; they consisted of one iron kettle, one tin coffee-pot, and 

 a dozen tin cups and a dozen tin plates — a small batterie de cuisine 

 for a legitimate cook, but they were ample for us. The fire had 

 been burning for a week, and thus there were plenty of hard coals. 

 The material consisted of some Indian meal, bear's meat, venison, 

 wild ducks, wild turkey, red-fish, turtle eggs, and snipe. The 

 cooks were Mike, the Doctor, Lou Jackson, and myself; the 

 scullions were all the negroes of the island. 



" Poke, you attend to the birds, will you ? " I said, handing 



