hand that looked like a bunch of knuckles.

"I knows ye!" exclaimed the steward, with a grin. "I know'd ye in the
offing yonder, but I couldn't make out your number. Lord, sir, if this
doesn't brighten Sir Jarvy up, again, and put him in mind of old times,
I shall begin to think we have run out cable to the better end."

"I will speak to him, duke, if you think it advisable?" said Sir
Wycherly, in an inquiring manner.

"Galleygo," put in Sir Gervaise, "what lubber fitted that cable?--he has
turned in the clench the wrong way."

"Ay--ay, sir, they _is_ great lubbers, them stone-cutters, Sir Jarvy;
and they knows about as much of ships, as ships knows of them. But here
is _young_ Sir Wycherly Wychecombe come to see you--the _old_ 'un's
nevy."

"Sir Wycherly, you are a very welcome guest. Bowldero is a poor place
for a gentleman of your merit; but such as it is, it is entirely at your
service. What did you say the gentleman's name was, Galleygo?"

"Sir Wycherly Wychecombe, the _young_ 'un--the _old_ 'un slipped the
night as we moored in his house."

"I hope, Sir Gervaise, I have not entirely passed from your
recollection; it would grieve me sadly to think so. And my poor uncle,
too; he who died of apoplexy in your presence!"

"_Nullus, nulla, nullum._ That's good Latin, hey! Duke? _Nullius,
nullius, nullius._ My memory _is_ excellent, gentlemen; nominative,
_penna_; genitive, _pennae_, and so on."

"Now, Sir Jarvy, since you're veering out your Latin, _I_ should likes
to know if you can tell a 'clove-hitch' from a 'carrick-bend?'"

"That is an extraordinary question, Galleygo, to put to an old seaman!"

"Well, if you remembers _that_, why can't you just as reasonably
remember your old friend, Admiral Blue?"

"Admiral of the blue! I do recollect _many_ admirals of the blue. They
ought to make me an admiral of the blue, duke; I've been a rear-admiral
long enough."

"You've _been_ an admiral of the blue _once_; and that's enough for any
man," interrupted Galleygo, again in his positive manner; "and it isn't
five minutes since you know'd your own rank as well as the Secretary to
the Admiralty himself. He veers and hauls, in this fashion, on an idee,
gentlemen, until he doesn't know one end of it from t'other."

"This is not uncommon with men of great age," observed the duke. "They
sometimes remember the things of their youth, while the whole of later
life is a blank. I have remarked this with our venerable fri