All dead wrong from start to
finish, an' Whittier he's to blame. I have no special call to right any
Marblehead man, but 'tweren't no fault o' Ireson's. My father he told
me the tale time an' again, an' this is the way 'twuz."

"For the wan hundredth time," put in Long Jack under his breath

"Ben Ireson he was skipper o' the Betty, young feller, comin' home frum
the Banks--that was before the war of 1812, but jestice is jestice at
all times. They fund the Active o' Portland, an' Gibbons o' that town
he was her skipper; they fund her leakin' off Cape Cod Light. There was
a terr'ble gale on, an' they was gettin' the Betty home 's fast as they
could craowd her. Well, Ireson he said there warn't any sense to
reskin' a boat in that sea; the men they wouldn't hev it; and he laid
it before them to stay by the Active till the sea run daown a piece.
They wouldn't hev that either, hangin' araound the Cape in any sech
weather, leak or no leak. They jest up stays'l an' quit, nat'rally
takin' Ireson with 'em. Folks to Marblehead was mad at him not runnin'
the risk, and becaze nex' day, when the sea was ca'am (they never
stopped to think o' that), some of the Active's folks was took off by a
Truro man. They come into Marblehead with their own tale to tell,
sayin' how Ireson had shamed his town, an' so forth an' so on, an'
Ireson's men they was scared, seein' public feelin' agin' 'em, an' they
went back on Ireson, an' swore he was respons'ble for the hull act.
'Tweren't the women neither that tarred and feathered him--Marblehead
women don't act that way--'twas a passel o' men an' boys, an' they
carted him araound town in an old dory till the bottom fell aout, and
Ireson he told 'em they'd be sorry for it some day. Well, the facts
come aout later, same's they usually do, too late to be any ways useful
to an honest man; an' Whittier he come along an' picked up the slack
eend of a lyin' tale, an' tarred and feathered Ben Ireson all over onct
more after he was dead. 'Twas the only tune Whittier ever slipped up,
an' 'tweren't fair. I whaled Dan good when he brought that piece back
from school. You don't know no better, o' course; but I've give you the
facts, hereafter an' evermore to be remembered. Ben Ireson weren't no
sech kind o' man as Whittier makes aout; my father he knew him well,
before an' after that business, an' you beware o' hasty jedgments,
young feller. Next!"

Harvey had never heard Disko talk so long, and collapsed with b