Leila, or, the Island

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. Do come to dinner, papa, Leila exclaimed; do come quick, or it will be cold, for nurse says there are no silver covers in the wilderness. And do you know what I was going to say, papa ? I was going to say, ' If you please, dinner is on the table, ' and lo and behold there is no table ?that was...
More Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. Do come to dinner, papa, Leila exclaimed; do come quick, or it will be cold, for nurse says there are no silver covers in the wilderness. And do you know what I was going to say, papa ? I was going to say, ' If you please, dinner is on the table, ' and lo and behold there is no table ?that was a mistake indeed; but come and see, papa, if you think I have managed well. Leila had spread a tablecloth on the ground in the inner cavern; the useful canteen she had placed as a seat for her papa, and her own seat was composed of a parcel of her clothes. At the top of the table, orrather tablecloth, was a magnificent plate of grapes, which she had gathered herself, and dressed up with green leaves and wild flowers. The bottom dish, if not quite so elegant, was rather more substantial: nurse had contrived to stew a fowl with rice, in a manner which reflected the highest credit on her; and never was a dinner partaken of with more grateful hearts or better appetite. Mr. Howard could not, however, prevail upon nurse to sit down. It had been both her duty and her pleasure, she said, to wait upon him for many a long year, and, please Heaven, she would do so still; so taking the water-bottle in her hand, she left the cavern, and returned with water clear as crystal, into which she squeezed a couple of limes, and made for them a refreshing and most excellent sherbet. Dash and Selina were not quite so modest as nurse; appearing to consider themselves as members of the party, they took their seats one on each side of Leila, who sat opposite her papa; in other respects, however, they were perfectly well bred, asking for nothing till helped by her. Soon after they had dined, Mr. Howard returned to his work, and Leila watched the progress of it with impatience, for she ha...