night there was a big paw-paw on the table for ™ ^
chop, and so B— , who was an awfully good chap, to
about how good it was for the digestion. The book-keeper
said his trouble always came on two hours after eating’
asked if he might take a bit of- the thing to h s room
‘ Certainly,’ says B— , and as the paw-paw wasn t. cut at
meal the book-keeper quietly took it off whole wi i •
“ In the morning time he did not turn up. > J
before breakfast, went to his room and he wasn t the ,
he noticed the paw-paw was on the bed and that ^ a '
so he thought the book-keeper must have gone for a walk
being, as it were, a bit too tender to have gone on the fly a
yet So he just told the store clerk to tell the people t •
return him to the firm when they found him
lost, and thought no more about it, being, as 1 ,
a11“ W d l I31" Fortunately the steward boy put that paw-paw on
the table again for twelve o’clock chop. I f it hadn t been fo
that, not a living soul would have known the going of the bo -
keeper For when B—■ cut it open, there, right inside it, were
nine steel trouser-buttons, a Waterbury watch, and the poor
young fellow’s keys. For you see, instead of his
dinner with that paw-paw, th e p aw -p aw to o k c h a rg e
digested him, dinner and all, and when B. interrupted it, it
was just getting a grip on the steel things. T h e r e in awful
lot of pepsine in a paw-paw, and if you hang, &c" f / .
I collapsed, feebly murmuring that it was very interest g
but sad fro r the poor youn_g fellow s friends.
“ Not necessarily,” said the old coaster. So he had the
last word, and never again will I attempt to al
ways of the genuine old coaster. What you have got to do
Zith him is to be very thankful you have had the honour o f
StiUgI th in k we do o v e r -e s tim a te th e v a lu e of th e p ap aw
although I certainly did once myself hang the leg o a goa
mortal man could have got tooth into, on to a papaw tree
with a bit of string for the night. In the morning 1
clean gone, string and # ; ta* » M *
the papaine, or a purloining pagan that was the cause o
departure there was no evidence to show. Yet I am myself
as Hans Breitmann says, “ still skebdigal ” as to the papaw,.
and I dare say you are too.
But I must forthwith stop writing about the Gold Coast, or
I shall go on telling you stories and wasting your time, not to
mention the danger of letting out those which would damage
the nerves of the cultured of temperate climes, such as those
relating to the youth who taught himself French from a six
months’ method book ; of the man who wore brass buttons ;
the moving story of three leeches and two gentlemen; the
doctor up a creek; and the reason why you should not eat
pork along here because all the natives have either got the
guinea-worm, or kraw-kraw or ulcers ; and then the pigs go
and— dear me ! it was a near thing that time. I’ll leave off
at once.