Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/197

OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 191 of delight burst from the mouths of both of Mark s com panions. To the young man s great surprise, those which came from Bob s dark-skinned associate were in English, as well as those which came from Bob himself. This in duced him to take a good look at the man, when he disco vered a face that he knew ! " How is this, Bob?" cried Mark, almost gasping for breath "whom have you here? Is not this Socrates?" "Ay, ay, sir; that s Soc; and Dido, his wife, is within a hundred miles of you." This answer, simple as it was, nearly overcame our young man again. Socrates and Dido had been the slaves of Bridget, when he left home ; a part of the estate she had received from her grandmother. They dwelt in the house with her, and uniformly called her mistress. Mark knew them both very well, as a matter of course ; and Dido, with the archness of a favourite domestic, was often in the habit of calling him her young master. A flood of expectations, conjectures and apprehensions came over our hero, and he refrained from putting any questions im mediately, out of pure astonishment. He was almost afraid indeed to ask any. Nearly unconscious of what he was about, he led the way to the grove where he had dined two or three hours, before, and where the remainder of the reed-birds were suspended from the branch of a tree. The embers of the fire were ready, and in a few minutes Socrates handed Betts his dinner. Bob ate and drank heartily. He loved a tin-pot of rum and-water, or grog, as it used to be called though even the word is getting to be obsolete in these temperance times and he liked good eating. It was not epicurism, however, or a love of the stomach, that induced him to defer his explanations on the present occasion. He saw that Mark must hear what he had to relate gradually, and was not sorry that the recognition of the negro had pre pared him to expect something wonderful. Wonderful it was, indeed; and at last Betts, having finished his dinner, and given half-a-dozen preparatory hints, in order to lessen the intensity of his young friend s feelings, yielded to an appeal from the other s eyes, and commenced his nar-