Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/161

 will do just as well. So now let's get this fellow open.'

"It was not an easy job. However, what with stones, and a sharp stick, the lid was at last pried off, and a quantity of damp sawdust revealed.

"The children poked and poked. At last Alice hit upon something hard.

Perhaps it's a "Westphalia ham, she said. No! it was a bottle.

"It had no label; but Reggy knocked the top off against a stone, and took a mouthful.

Ph-shew!' he spluttered, and spit it out again.

What is it?' cried the rest.

Horrid! salt!' cried Reggy, making dreadful faces. 'It's that stuff Papa takes sometimes before breakfast,—I forget the name.'

"Saratoga water"?' said Alice, sniffing it daintily, and applying her tongue. 'So it is. Well, that's real mean! I didn't suppose medicines and such things ever came ashore on Desert Islands!'