owned in oil!" exclaimed the sisters, while Ailie opened her
eyes in amazement, and Mr Rokens became alarmingly purple in the face
with suppressed chuckling.

"It's true," remarked Rokens, in a hoarse whisper to Miss Martha,
putting his hand up to his mouth, the better to convey the sound to her
ears; "I seed him tumble in, and helped to haul him out."

"Let's have the story, Millons," cried the captain, pushing forward his
cup to be replenished; "It's so long since I heard it, that I've almost
forgotten it. Another cup o' tea, Martha, my dear--not quite so strong
as the last, and three times as sweet. I'll drink `Success to the cup
that cheers, but don't inebriate.' Go ahead, Millons."

Nothing rejoiced the heart of Mr Millons more than being asked to tell
a story. Like most men who are excessively addicted to the habit, his
stories were usually very long and very dry; but he had a bluff
good-natured way of telling them, that rendered his yarns endurable on
shore, and positively desirable at sea. Fortunately for the reader, the
story he was now requested to relate was not a long one.

"It ain't quite a _story_," he began--and in beginning he cleared his
throat with emphasis, thrust his thumbs into the arm-holes of his vest,
and tilted his chair on its hind-legs--"it ain't quite a story; it's a
hanecdote, a sort of hincident, so to speak, and this is 'ow it
'appened:--

"Many years ago, w'en I was a very young man, or a big boy, I was on a
voyage to the South Seas after whales. Tim Rokens was my messmate then,
and has bin so almost ever since, off, and on." (Mr Rokens nodded
assent to this statement.) "Well, we came up with a big whale, and fixed
an iron cleverly in him at the first throw--"

"An iron?" inquired Miss Martha, to whose mind flat and Italian irons
naturally occurred.

"Yes, madam, an iron; we call the 'arpoons irons. Well, away went the
fish, like all alive! not down, but straight for'ard, takin' out the
line at a rate that nearly set the boat on fire, and away we went along
with it. It _was_ a chase, that. For six hours, off and on, we stuck
to that whale, and pitched into 'im with 'arpoons and lances; but he
seemed to have the lives of a cat--nothin' would kill 'im. At last the
'arpooner gave him a thrust in the life, an' up went the blood and
water, and the fish went into the flurries, and came nigh capsizin' the
boat with its tail as it lashed the water into foam. At last it gave
in