ced doublet, and thingumbobs at the wrists. D-- my
limbs! I have been a hard-working man, and served all offices on board
from cook's shifter to the command of a vessel. Here, you Tunley,
there's the hand of a seaman, you dog."

So saying, he laid hold on the landlord's fist, and honoured him with
such a squeeze, as compelled him to roar with great vociferation, to
the infinite satisfaction of the commodore, whose features were a little
unblended by this acknowledgment of his vigour; and he thus proceeded,
in a less outrageous strain: "They make a d--d noise about this
engagement with the French: but, egad! it was no more than a bumboat
battle, in comparison with some that I have seen. There was old Rook and
Jennings, and another whom I'll be d--d before I name, that knew what
fighting was. As for my own share, d'ye see, I am none of those that
hallo in their own commendation: but if so be that I were minded to
stand my own trumpeter, some of those little fellows that hold their
heads so high would be taken all aback, as the saying is: they would
be ashamed to show their colours, d-- my eyes! I once lay eight glasses
alongside of the Flour de Louse, a French man-of-war, though her mettle
was heavier, and her complement larger by a hundred hands than mine.
You, Jack Hatchway, d-- ye, what d'ye grin at! D'ye think I tell a
story, because you never heard it before?"

"Why, look ye, sir," answered the lieutenant, "I am glad to find you can
stand your own trumpeter on occasion; though I wish you would change the
tune, for that is the same you have been piping every watch for these
ten months past. Tunley himself will tell you he has heard it five
hundred times."--"God forgive you! Mr. Hatchway," said the landlord,
interrupting him; "as I am an honest man and a housekeeper, I never
heard a syllable of the matter."

This declaration, though not strictly true, was extremely agreeable
to Mr. Trunnion, who, with an air of triumph, observed, "Aha! Jack,
I thought I should bring you up, with your gibes and your jokes: but
suppose you had heard it before, is that any reason why it shouldn't
be told to another person? There's the stranger, belike he has heard it
five hundred times too; han't you, brother?" addressing himself to Mr.
Pickle; who replying, with a look expressing curiosity, "No, never;" he
thus went on: "Well, you seem to be an honest, quiet sort of a man;
and therefore you must know, as I said before, I fell in with a