u Britishers will be inclined to deal, I guess," he observed;
and, without waiting for an answer, ordered the people in his boat to
send up some cases of claret and boxes of oranges which he had brought.
A whip was sent down, and they were soon had on deck, and I must say we
were not sorry to make a deal with him--that is to say, the captain and
gun-room officers took the claret, and the midshipmen the oranges.

"Well, I guess you've got them dirt cheap," observed the Yankee skipper,
as he pocketed the money. "But mind now, I don't warrant them all
sound."

Had he made the remark before we bought them, we might have thanked him
for his honesty. On opening the cases we found that more than one half
were rotten, and that the rest would not keep many days. That, of
course, was the reason he had sold them.

He finished his cigar while he went on talking much in the same strain
as he had done at first, and then coolly proposed inspecting the ship.
As there was no objection to his so doing, he was allowed to go round
the decks, when he might have counted thirty-six guns, and as fine a
looking crew as ever stepped the deck of a man-of-war. At length
Captain Nathan Noakes returned on board the Hickory Stick. Afterwards,
when I repeated to the boatswain the remarks of Captain Noakes, his
observation was--

"I cannot stand those Yankees--they do exaggerate so terribly. One
cannot depend on a word they say."

I made no reply, for it struck me that Mr Johnson himself did at times,
as he would have said, rather overstate facts. I made the remark to
Perigal.

"Well, boy, the boatswain is like most of us," he answered; "we don't
see our own faults. I suspect no man would be more ready than he would
to grow angry should his veracity be called in question."

"But those stories of his own adventures are very amusing," said I.

"Very," said Perigal. "And as long as he confines himself to them no
great harm is done; but if a man once gets into the habit of departing
from the truth for the sake of amusing his hearers, he may not stop
there, and will, very likely, tell a falsehood of a different character
whenever it may suit his convenience to do so."

The sun when setting indicated fine weather. During the night there was
a light breeze, scarcely sufficient to send our heavy frigate through
the water. When day dawned, however, our Yankee friend, we discovered,
had managed to slip away, and was hull down to the south-we