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“Are you going ashore at once, pa?”

“Certainly, dear; that is, if we can make a landing through the breakers.”

“Suppose there are cannibals on it, pa? It would be horrid to have them eat us!”

“They would have to fatten us first, darling; and that would give us an opportunity to study their habits. It would be extremely interesting!”

“But the study would be of no use if they should eat us!”

“All knowledge is useful, Tilly; I could write out the results of our observations, and probably set them adrift in a bottle!”

“It is such a dreadful death!”

“Try to look at it philosophically! There is really nothing more unpleasant about the idea of being digested than there is about the thought of being buried.”

“O, pa!”

“No, my child! It is merely a sentiment. If I shall be eaten, and we have volition after death, I am determined to know how I agreed with the man who had me for dinner! Tilly, I have a notion that you would eat tender!”

“Pa, you are simply awful!”

“To me, indeed, there is something inspiring in the thought that my physical substance, when I have done with it, should nourish the vitality of another being. I don’t like to think that I may be wasted.”