Digital heart book

Upon one occasion
the dummy axe floated, and the laugh turned rather the
wrong way.
In from ten to twenty minutes the boats are along-side
again, the messes are marshalled separately on the
deck, and the picnic goes ashore, to find the band and
the impromptu bar awaiting them. Then come the
hampers, which are piled up on the beach, and
surrounded by a stern guard of stalwart asses, axe on
shoulder. It is here I take my place, note-book in
hand, under a banner bearing the legend, "Come here for
hampers." Each hamper contains a complete outfit for a
separate twenty--cold provender, plates, glasses,
knives, forks, and spoons. An agonised printed appeal
from the fevered pen of Pinkerton, pasted on the inside
of the lid, beseeches that care be taken of the glass
and silver. Beer, wine, and lemonade are flowing
already from the bar, and the various clans of twenty
file away into the woods, with bottles under their arms
and the hampers strung upon a stick. Till one they
feast there, in a very moderate seclusion, all being
within earshot of the band.


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