"Good for them!" said the first lieutenant; "yes, very good for them but very bad for you. Why, my good fellow, they'll thrive upon tobacco until they grow as large as conger eels. Heat is what the worms are fond of; but cold--cold will kill them. Now I'll cure you. Quarter-master, come here. Walk this boy up and down the weather gangway, and every time you get forward abreast of the main-tack block, put his mouth to windward, squeeze him sharp by the nape of the neck until he opens his mouth wide, and there keep him and let the cold air blow down his throat, while you count ten; then walk him aft, and when you are forward again proceed as before.--Cold kills worms, my poor boy, not tobacco--I wonder that you are not dead by this time." A few nights afterwards, when we had the middle watch, O'Brien proceeded with his story. "Where was it that I left off?" "You left off at the time that you were taken out of confinement." "So I did, sure enough; and it was with no goodwill that I went to my duty. However, as there was no help for it, I walked up and down the deck as before, with my hands in my pockets, thinking of old Ireland, and my great ancestor, Brien Borru. And so I went on behaving myself like a real gentleman, and getting into no more scrapes, until the fleet put into the Cove of Cork, and I found myself within a few miles of my father's house. You may suppose that the anchor had hardly kissed the mud before I went to the first lieutenant and asked leave to go on shore. Now the first lieutenant was not in the sweetest of tempers, seeing as how the captain had been hauling him over the coals for not carrying on the duty according to his satisfaction. So he answered me very gruffly, that I should not leave the ship. `O bother!' said I to myself, `this will never do.' So up I walked to the captain, and touching my hat, reminded him that `I had a father and mother, and a pretty sprinkling of brothers and sisters, who were dying to see me, and that I hoped that he would give me leave.' `Ax the first lieutenant,' said he turning away. `I have, sir,' replied I, `and he says that the devil a bit shall I put my foot on shore.' `Have you any fault to find with Mr O'Brien?' said the captain to the first lieutenant, as he came aft. `No more than I have with midshipmen in general; but I believe it is not the custom for officers to ask leave to go on shore before the sails are furled and the yards squared.' `Very true,' replied the captain; `therefore, Mr O'Brien, you must wait until the watch is called, and then, if you ask the first lieutenant, I have no doubt but you will have leave granted to you to go and see your friends.'