n return.
"He is a churlish old blade," said Tom; thinking by this remark to rouse
and animate the blood of their taciturn companion.--"There seems to be
no intelligence in him. Pray, Sir," continued he, "may I be so bold as
to inquire, laying his hand upon ~161~~ his knee, what is the name of
that vessel on which you appear to bestow so many anxious looks?"

Roused by the touch, he darted a hasty look at Tom, and then at Bob,
started hastily from his seat, held up his stick, as they supposed, in
a menacing attitude, then shouldering it, he marched, or rather hobbled,
on his wooden pin some paces from them, and, with an air of commanding
authority, returned in front of them, took off his hat, and began
to describe two lines on the gravel, but which was to them perfectly
unintelligible.

However, in a few minutes, the arrival of a younger Pensioner, with one
arm and a wooden stump, in breathless haste, informed them that the old
gentleman was deaf and dumb.

"God bless you, my worthy masters," said the interpreter, who first
paid his respects to the old Commodore, "you have started my revered
commander on his high ropes; he is as deaf as the top-lights, and as
dumb as a stantion: two and twenty years ago, your Honors, he and I
were both capsized together on board; the shot that took off his leg
splintered my arm, and the doctor kindly took it off for me afterwards."

"That was a lamentable day for you," said Tom. "Why aye, for the matter
of that there, d'ye see, it disabled us from sarvice, but then we both
of us had some consolation, for we have never been separated since:
besides, we were better off than poor Wattie the cook, who had his head
taken off by a chain-shot, and was made food for sharks, while we are
enabled to stump about the world with the use of our remaining limbs,
and that there's a comfort, you know."

During this introductory conversation, the old Commodore was intent
upon the work he had began, which, upon inquiry, was a sort of practical
description of the situation in which the ships were placed at the
period when he lost his limb. "He is now pouring in a broadside, and in
imagination enjoying a part of his life over again. It is a sorry sight,
my worthy Sirs, and yet upon the whole it is a cheerful one, to see an
old man live his time over again; now he is physicing them with

grape-shot--Bang--Bang--like hail--my eyes how she took it--Go it again,
my boys, said the old Commodore--Ditto repe