If ye want to know how good a cup of water can taste, go two days without drinking; or if ye want to enjoy a good night's rest, sit up for two nights, and so, if ye want to enjoy a nice maal of victuals, ye must fast for a day or two.

Now, I don't naad any fasting, for I always enjoyed ating from the first pratie they giv me to suck when I was a few waaks old." "Well, Mickey, you've been pretty well around the cave, and I want to know what you think of our chance of getting out ?" The face of the Irishman became serious, and he looked thoughtfully into the fire a moment before answering.

Disposed as he was to view everything from the sunshiny side, Mickey was not such a simpleton as to consider their incarceration in the cave a matter that could be passed off with a quirp and jest.

He had explored the interior pretty thoroughly, and gained a correct idea of their situation, but as yet he saw no practical way of getting out.

The plan of diving down the stream, and trusting to Providence to come up on the outside was to be the last resort.
Mickey did not propose to undertake it until convinced that no other scheme was open to him.