No, I just outs of the barrow, and I says to his Majesty, ‘ How are you, my buck? Tip us your flipper!’”
“Oh, Ben, you just were brave,” said Charlie; but wasn’t the king astonished?”
“Right you are, Master Charles, he was kind of struck dumb with amazement. Near by, however, was his chief medicine man a-squatting on another throne, and he ups and says he:
“’Whoe’er you are, whate’er you be,
This axe shall make mincemeat of thee,’
and he swipes a terrible chop at me with an enormous hatchet.”
“Oh, Ben, and did he hit you?”
“Not much, Master Charles; for I dodged the deadly weapon, and putting a hand into each of my waistcoat pockets I pulls out a couple of squibs, lights them at the end of my she-root, and chucks them at his bare breast. I give you my word, Master Charles, he yelled fit to burst his skin, and fell a-grovelling on the ground; so I follows the squibs with some crackers, and that just about finished him, never having seen such things before. That there black po-ten-tate turned white about the gills, and all the people trembled; then I sat me down on the throne of the medicine man, and I claps the king a good sounding whack on the back. ‘You see,’ says I, ‘what comes of insulting of the British Lion; but you're all right, old horse, so keep up your pecker.’
“Then I tells him more about the British Lion, likewise our gracious Queen, and shows him the flag, and points out the advantages of trade, and all the time I has my foot on the neck of that there medicine man. Then I makes the king a present of the scarlet coat and the cocked hat and feathers, and I helps him to put them on, and I shows him hisself in a looking-glass, the which I had brought with me a-purpose. And he rubs noses with me then and there, and appoints me his chief medicine man; likewise he tells me as how he’d a soft place in his heart for the Queen, from what I had told him, and would like to marry her straight off. Then I explained to him as how that wouldn’t very well do, as the lady lived far, far away beyond the setting sun, but he could be her great friend, and she would protect him from all his enemies, and he could have any quantity of cowrie shells in return for ivory and gold dust. Likewise I rigs up a flagstaff on the king’s palace, and hoists the Union Jack, and when night fell we had a grand display of
