Page:Barbour--Lost island.djvu/292

 under my roof for nearly eighteen months, perhaps you 'll understand how glad I am to have you. It's no hotel, mind you. We have to put up with a lot of things besides heat on Washington Island, but I 've drilled my boy into cooking till he is one splendid artist with the pots and pans, though he did n't even know how to open a can of beans when I first took him in hand. Yessir, Joe Flagg knows how to cook, though I do say it. When I was in Dogtooth City—"

"He's a decent sort of chap, isn't he?" said Tempest to Dave a little later, when they were alone for a few minutes.

"He's great, so far as his hospitality goes," the boy replied. "This suits us down to the ground, but I fancy we shall get a bit tired of Dogtooth City before we say good-by, sha'n't we?"

"That's easy," said Tempest. "All you have to do when you see it coming is to butt in with some other subject, and he switches off all right."

Mr. Flagg certainly went out of his way to be