He is a great deal too indulgent to my little self." "Well, then, dear Minha," said Manoel, "I shall profit by that permission to remind you----" "Of what ?" "That you were very busy in the library at the fazenda, and that you promised to make me very learned about everything connected with the Upper Amazon.

We know very little about it in Para, and here we have been passing several islands and you have not even told me their names!" "What is the good of that ?" said she.
"Yes; what is the good of it ?" repeated Benito.

"What can be the use of remembering the hundreds of names in the 'Tupi' dialect with which these islands are dressed out?
It is enough to know them.

The Americans are much more practical with their Mississippi islands; they number them----" "As they number the avenues and streets of their towns," replied Manoel.
"Frankly, I don't care much for that numerical system; it conveys nothing to the imagination--Sixty-fourth Island or Sixty-fifth Island, any more than Sixth Street or Third Avenue.

Don't you agree with me, Minha ?" "Yes, Manoel; though I am of somewhat the same way of thinking as my brother.