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SOUTH SEA 
taking care at the same time, to say very little to her 
brother, fearing lest he might explain the whole busi- 
ness. Having noticed this, and having observed a 
certain cunning twinkling about the old man’s eye, we 
still felt that she was only “ paltering with us in a double 
sense,” and so we determined to place the queen upon 
the severest trial we could devise, — when seating our- 
selves and lighting our cigars, and calling her brother 
to bring us a little fresh water, we mixed some grog, 
and entered into conversation with each other, watching 
the motions of the queen every time we drank her 
health from the cocoa-nut shell, in which we had mixed 
our refreshment. We had not been seated more than 
a few minutes before the queen’s brother thought proper 
to come and sit also, which he did close by the side of 
the captain, every now and then throwing a most search- 
ing look at our two bottles which contained the rum 0 
It was not long before the captain invited him to drink, 
when suddenly laying hold of the cocoa-nut shell, which 
contained the liquor, as if human endurance could exist 
no longer, he applied the vessel to his mouth, drank 
off in one draught the whole of its contents, and then 
turning to his sister and looking her full in the face, 
with an animated expression of countenance, he broke 
out into one of the most immoderate fits of laughter 
that I ever recollect to have heard, to which a chorus 
was formed by the queen and ourselves. Her majesty 
was not long in following the example of her brother, 
when the same laugh and chorus were indulged in until 
our two bottles were emptied. By the time that her 
