I thought, and then I got sorry for the old soul because he coughed so

hard. I remembered that we had some of that cough mixture the American

consul gave the captain for Hay. It never did Hay a ha'porth of service,

but I thought it might do the old gentleman's business for him, and

stood up. "Yorana!" says I. "Yorana!" says he. "Look here," I said,

I've got some first-rate stuff in a bottle; it'll fix your cough,

savvy? Harry my and I'll measure you a tablespoonful in the palm of my

hand, for all our plate is at the bankers." So I thought the old party

came up, and the nearer he came, the less I took to him. But I had

passed my word, you see.'

'Wot is this bloomin' drivel?' interrupted the clerk. 'It's like the rot

there is in tracts.'

It's a story; I used to tell them to the kids at home,' said Herrick.

If it bores you, I'll drop it.'

'O, cut along!' returned the sick man, irritably. 'It's better than

nothing.'

'Well,' continued Herrick, 'I had no sooner given him the cough mixture

than he seemed to straighten up and change, and I saw he wasn't a

Tahitian after all, but some kind of Arab, and had a long beard on his

chin. "One good turn deserves another," says he. "I am a magician out

of the Arabian Nights, and this mat that I have under my arm is the

original carpet of Mohammed Ben Somebody-or-other. Say the word, and

you

The Ebb-Tide