EPISODES 



409 



succession, shoot as many birds as they need, collect the 

 iresh eggs, and lay in a cargo. At every step each ruf- 

 fian picks up an egg so beautiful that any man with a feel- 

 ing heart would pause to consider the motive which could 

 induce him to carry it off. But nothing of this sort oc- 

 curs to the egger, who gathers and gathers until he has 

 swept the rock bare. The dollars alone chink in his sor- 

 did mind, and he assiduously plies the trade which no 

 man would ply who had the talents and industry to pro- 

 cure subsistence by honorable means. 



With a bark nearly half filled with fresh eggs they pro- 

 ceed to the principal rock, that on which they first landed. 

 But what is their surprise when they find others there 

 helping themselves as industriously as they can ! In 

 boiling rage they charge their guns and ply their oars. 

 Landing on the rock they run up to the egger.s, who, like 

 themselves, are desperadoes. The first question is a dis- 

 charge of musketry, the answer another. Now, man to 

 man, they fight like tigers. One is carried to his boat 

 with a fractured skull, another limps with a shot in his 

 leg, and a third feels how many of his teeth have been 

 driven through the hole in his cheek. At last, however, 

 the quarrel is settled ; the booty is to be equally divided ; 

 and now see them all drinking together. Oaths and 

 curses and filthy jokes are all that you hear; but see, 

 stuffed with food, and reeling with drink, down they drop 

 one by one; groans and execrations from the wounded 

 mingle with the snoring of the heavy sleepers. There 

 let the brutes lie. 



Again it is dawn, but no one stirs. The sun is high ; 

 one by one they open their heavy eyes, stretch their 

 limbs, yawn, and raise themselves from the deck. But 

 see, here comes a goodly company. A hundred honest 

 fishermen, who for months past have fed on salt meat, 

 have felt a desire to procure some eggs. Gallantly their 

 boats advance, impelled by the regular pull of their long 



P 



;«'ii, 



