When on board the "International" once more, our friends separated for
needed rest, and the sisters entered the library, to find their father
busy over a wilderness of papers spread out upon the large table in the
center. But he took leisure to give them a hearty greeting, and cried
merrily,
"You never can guess what I found for you in Algiers!"
"Nor you what I found in Algiers," returned Faith quickly, keeping a
firm hold on the little captive, who was now hidden beneath her lace
scarf.
"You found? Have you been buying me a present, girlie?" laughed her
father with eager interest.
"Why, n--no, not exactly," stammered Faith, somewhat taken aback, and
growing decidedly warm in her efforts to keep the beast quiet. "Only
I--"
"What's the matter with your hands? Can't you keep 'em still under
that gauze thing?" asked her father suspiciously, while Hope, expectant
and amused, looked on with dancing eyes.
"Yes only--oh! Hope, I can't hold him, he scratches so--a-auch!" and
in spite of herself she dropped the spunky mite which, like a streak of
lightning, dashed across the room and up Captain Hosmer's leg, into his
coat pocket. The yard of twine, still attached to him, hung outside,
and the astonished man, seeing only the streak and the string, sprang
up with a shout of dismay.
"A snake!" he cried. "A _snake_! What are you doing with a snake?"
Hope, in a paroxysm, fell back upon the window seat, Faith, between
laughter and dismay, tried to explain, and poor little Monsieur Siege,
nearly scared out of his wits, darted from the inhospitable pocket up
the chair-back, then leaped to the top of the window, where, feeling
secure, he hung himself up to the curtain-rod by his tail, and
proceeded to scold, like a perfect virago.
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