There are some magnificent caves there, and
in that climate they are grand places, I do assure you. I never saw
anything so beautiful. The ceiling is covered with splendiferous
spary-like icicles, or chandelier drops. What do you call that word,
Doctor?"
"Stalactites."
"Exactly, that's it, glorious stalactites reaching to the bottom and
forming fluted pillars. In one of those caves where the water runs,
the admiral floored over the bottom and gave a ball in it, and it was
the most Arabian Night's entertainment kind of thing that I ever saw.
It looked like a diamond hall, and didn't it show off the Mudian galls
to advantage, lick! I guess it did, for they are the handsomest
Creoles in all creation. There is more substance in 'em than in the
tropical ladies. I don't mean worldly (though that ain't to be sneered
at, neither, by them that ain't got none themselves). When the people
used to build small clippers there for the West Indian trade, cedar
was very valuable, and a gall's fortune was reckoned, not by pounds,
but by so many cedars. Now it is banana trees. But dear me, somehow or
another we have drifted away down to Bermuda, we must stretch back
again to the Nova Scotian coast east of Chesencook, or, like Jerry
Boudrot, we shall be out of sight of land, and lost at sea."
On going up on the deck, my attention was naturally attracted to my
new purchase, the Canadian horse.
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