ntangled tufts, rendering it a matter of wonder how
anything in the shape of a hat could stick on. His brow was a countless
mass of ever-varying wrinkles, which gave to his sly visage an aspect of
humorous anxiety that was highly diverting--and all the more diverting
when you came to know that the man had not a spark of anxiety in his
composition, though he often said he had. His dress, like that of most
Jack-tars, was naturally rugged, and he contrived to make it more so
than usual.

"An' it's hot, too, it is," he continued, applying his kerchief again to
his pate. "If it warn't for the ice we stand on, we'd be melted down, I
do belave, like bits o' whale blubber."

"Wot a jolly game football is, ain't it?" said Davie, seating himself on
a hummock, and still panting hard.

"Ay, boy, that's jist what it is. The only objiction I have agin it is
that it makes ye a'most kick the left leg clane off yer body."

"Why don't you kick with your right leg, then, stupid, like other
people?" enquired Summers.

"Why don't I, is it? Troth, then, I don't know for sartin. Me father
lost his left leg at the great battle o' the Nile, and I've sometimes
thought that had somethin' to do wid it; but then me mother was lame o'
the _right_ leg intirely, and wint about wid a crutch, so I can't make
out how it was, d'ye see?"

"Look out, Pat," exclaimed Summers, starting up, "here comes the ball."

As he spoke, the football came skimming over the ice, towards the spot
on which they stood, with about thirty of the men running at full speed
and shouting like maniacs after it.

"That's your sort, my hearties! another like that and it's home! Pitch
into it, Mivins. You're the boy for me. Now, then, Grim, trip him up!
Hallo, Buzzby, you bluff-bowed Dutchman, luff! luff! or I'll stave in
your ribs! Mind your eye, Mizzle, there's Green, he'll be into your
larboard quarter in no time. Hurrah! Mivins, up in the air with it.
Kick, boy, kick like a spanker boom in a hurricane!"

Such were a few of the expressions that showered like hail round the men
as they rushed hither and thither after the ball. And here we may
remark that the crew of the _Dolphin_ played football in a somewhat
different style, from the way in which that noble game is played by boys
in England. Sides, indeed, were chosen, and boundaries were marked out,
but very little if any attention was paid to such secondary matters! To
kick the ball, and keep on kicking i