"I wonder you survived all your misfortunes, Mr Johnson," observed
Spellman, who, next to Gogles and Toby Bluff, seemed to place the most
perfect belief in the boatswain's veracious narratives, as he was
pleased to designate his amusing inventions.

"Why, do you see, Mr Spellman, I'm tough--very tough!" he answered,
with a hoarse laugh. "I doubt if even the head cook of the monarch of
the cannibal islands--King Hoki Poki--could ever make me tender. So you
see I've held out through them all; and there's one thing I may say,
trying as they may have been, they have never taken away my appetite.
Now, young gentlemen, you've had a good long yarn, and my throat feels
like a dust-hole with talking, so I must knock off."

"But you'll tell us the end of your adventures some day, Mr Johnson;
won't you now?" said Gogles, imploringly.

"I'll continue them, perhaps, young gentleman," answered the boatswain,
laughing. "But let me tell you it will take a mighty long time before I
ever get to the end of them. They're inexhaustible--something like the
mint, young gentlemen, where the King has his guineas struck which he
pays to us seamen for fighting for him. We should be in a bad way if
his shiners were to come to an end; and one thing I may promise you, as
long as I've got a brain to think and a tongue to wag, I shall be able
to continue my wonderful and veracious history."

Gogles and Spellman, and even Grey, looked puzzled. I had long
suspected that the origin of Mr Johnson's history was derived from a
source considerably removed from fact; and from the peculiar way in
which he screwed up his mouth, and the merry twinkle of his one eye--for
the other he shut with the comic twist of his nose--I now had not the
slightest doubt of the matter. I cannot say that his narratives were
exactly instructive, but they were at all events highly amusing to us
youngsters. The watch being just then called, an interruption was put
to his narrative. Toby Bluff, and some of the other boys, who had been
listening outside, were scuttling along the deck, spluttering out their
laughter, while the young gentlemen whose watch it was hurried on deck,
and the rest retired to the berth. We left Mr Johnson chuckling
complacently at his own conceits.

I went to the berth, now magnificently lighted by two purser's dips,
which stood on the table, dropping fatness, in company with a
bread-barge of biscuit, some tumblers, earthenware and tin mugs, a