Professor Menu 227

most expressive eyes ; his legs are composed
of giant rhubarb stalks ; his fingers are radishes
—you ate some, I recollect. He again has
vegetable marrow in his bones, of course.”

‘And those strange men in the boat ?”

“They are dock-labourers— merely a
skilful use of the ordinary dock-plant grown
in the London docks.

First I made a mixture of the dock and
the Swede—Swedes being the best sailors.
You observed that their hands consisted of
palms only—that is palm-fronds.

These, as you saw, they use as sails for
propelling the boat. It is in consequence of
the delicate palm elefhent in them that I am
forced to swathe them up in bass-matting.
Their great trouble is that when they are on
land their sea-kail legs are always trying to
take root. This gives a good deal of incon-
venience. They can’t keep their sea legs,”

[ jumped from my chair in terror as a loud
report reached my ears.

“It’s all right, Peppermint,” said Merioneth.
“It's only the ginger-poppies going off all

at once,”