no! They
know their work now, and I'd only have to ship a crowd of beach-combers
and half-breeds at nearly double pay. Besides, gentlemen, we're just a
little proud of this crew. They are lake sailors from Oswego, a little
port on Lake Ontario. When I was young I sailed on the Lakes a season
or two and became thoroughly acquainted with the aggressive
self-respect of that breed. They would rather fight than eat. Their
reputation in this regard prevents them getting berths in any but
Oswego vessels, and even affects the policy of the nation. There's a
fort at Oswego, and whenever a company of soldiers anywhere in the
country become unmanageable--when their officers can't control them
outside the guard-house--the War Department at Washington transfers
them to Oswego for the tutelage they will get from the sailors. And
they get it; they are well-behaved, well-licked soldiers when they
leave. An Oswego sailor loves a row. He is possessed by the fighting
spirit of a bulldog; he inherits it with his Irish sense of injury; he
sucks it in with his mother's milk, and drinks it in with his whisky;
and when no enemies are near, he will fight his friends. Pay them off?
Not much. I've taken sixteen of those devils round the Horn, and I'll
take them back. I'm proud of them. Just look at them," he concluded
vivaciously, as he waved his hand at his men; "docile and obedient,
down on their knees with bibles and prayer-books."

"And the name o' the Lord on their lips," grunted the adviser; "but not
in prayer, I'll bet you."

"Hardly," laughed Captain Benson. "Come below, gentlemen; the steward
is ready."

From lack of facilities the mild-faced and smiling steward could not
serve that dinner with the style which it deserved. He would have
liked, he explained, as they seated themselves, to bring it on in
separate courses; but one and all disclaimed such frivolity. The dinner
was there, and that was enough. And it was a splendid dinner. In front
of Captain Benson, at the head of the table, stood a large tureen of
smoking terrapin-stew; next to that a stuffed and baked freshly caught
fish; and waiting their turn in the center of the spread, a couple of
brace of wild geese from the inland lakes, brown and glistening,
oyster-dressed and savory. Farther along was a steaming plum-pudding,
overhead on a swinging tray a dozen bottles of wine, by the captain's
elbow a decanter of yellow fluid, and before each man's plate a couple
of glasses of d