170 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



you see they 've stopped ? — Poetry, ma'am, is suggestive of dinner 

 and dinner of poetry, for — 



" Doctor, your pat^s are burning." 



" Dear me, what a miserable operation ! You, Sam, why didn't 

 you see that coal snap ? " 



" Didn't like fur to stop maussa's speechifin'." 



"Ha! ha!" laughed Jackson, "you had better get the plates 

 ready, Scip ; where are the plates ? " 



" All here, sah," said Scipio, bringing in a dozen or more pieces 

 of white birch bark rounded and smoothed with the knife; and 

 behind him came Caesar with the tin cups brightly scoured. Some 

 of the men had reared a wooden table when we first came to the 

 island; this unusual luxury for a camp was elevated about two 

 feet from the ground, and formed a convenient centre for the 

 family that sat around on the sand where fancy dictated. The 

 plates were arranged on the table, one to each guest, and a pile in 

 store for other courses, for it was a thing unknown in this camp 

 of plenty to use a plate the second time. 



"Turn the pumpkin, some one ; don't you see it browning ?" 



The Doctor paused while measuring a handful of sugar for his 

 omelette to see the cooking progress. Rose basted the turkey, 

 ejaculating from time to time, " Gi, he hot !" Mike sat like a Turk 

 on his crossed legs, gradually withdrawing the venison steak from 

 the heat, and Jackson, who never gave himself much concern 

 about the dinners, stood overlooking the coffee-pot. It was a 

 pleasant dinner in cooking, and when it was announced by universal 

 acclaim that it was done, we all felt that we had earned our appetites. 



First came out the fish from his hot bed, a black steaming 

 mass, that bore more resemblance to a sacred embalmed crocodile 

 than to an article of food ; but as one by one the wrappings of 

 wet rags and green leaves were removed, bringing with them the 

 skin and scales, and his fishiness was gently rolled over on a piece 

 of clean birch bark and placed on the table, white, flaky, and 

 steaming hot, a universal ha ! from the convives heralded the 

 success of our first course. To talk of boiled fish, where half of 

 the peculiar flavour of a trout is left in the water, or sole au gratin 

 that is smothered in sauce and mushrooms, is a mark of gratitude 



