s, sir, I know that, sir," persisted Brewster, "but we had a rough
trip from there, sir; that last blow we had gin' our standin' riggin'
a devil of a strainin', sir."

"Oh! well, Mr. Brewster," replied the skipper, "it'll take but a day
or two to set up our shrouds, and I'm afraid we shall have plenty of
time for that."

"Very well, Captain Smith," resumed the second mate, "it is nothing to
me, sir. I'd as lief they'd be ashore all the time, sir, but before
you give Mr. Langley leave, I'd just wish to enter a complaint against
him, sir. I shouldn't thought of saying nothin' about it, only to see
him coming and asking for liberty so bloody bold, just as if he
reckoned he desarved it, makes me feel a leetle riley, sir. He was
guilty of using disrespectable language to his superior officer, to
me, sir, and upon the quarter-deck, too, sir, d----n him. You see,
that night afore last, in his anchor-watch, it was rather warm in my
state-room, so I went between decks to walk and cool off a little, and
I heard Bill sitting on the booby-hatch and a spoutin' poetry to
his-self. Well, I just walks up the ladder, pokes my head through the
slide and hails him; but instead of answering me in a proper manner,
what does he do but jumps off the hatch and square off in this manner,
as if he was agoin' to claw me in the face, and he sings out--'Are you
a goose or a gobbler, d----n you?' I didn't want to pick a fuss
before the rest of the watch, or by the holy Paul I'd a taught him the
difference between his officer and a barn-yard fowl in a series of one
lesson--blast his etarnal picter!"

"Mr. Langley," said the skipper, "what have you to say for yourself?
Such language upon the quarter-deck to your superior officer is very
impertinent."

"If you'll allow me," replied the accused, "I think I can give a
version of the story which will sound a little different. You see, the
second mate wears a night-cap, to keep the cockroaches or bugs out of
his ears--"

"That's a lie," roared Brewster. "I wears it because I've got a
catarrh, which I ketched by doing my duty in all weathers, long afore
you ever dipped your fingers in pitch, you lazy son of a gun."

"Silence!" cried Captain Smith, suppressing a laugh. "Mr. Langley,
never mind the night-cap, but go on with your story."

"Well," resumed the third mate, "he does wear one, any how, and night
before last I sat on the hatch, as he says, reading Shakspeare in the
moonlight, and when the s