"Did the captain hit him very hard?" I said, after a glance over my shoulder, to see that the officers were walking aft talking to Miss Denning. "Hard? Did the skipper hit him hard, sir? What says you, Barney, and you, Neb Dumlow?" This was to the two sailors who were generally pretty close to his heels, all three men being thorough messmates, and having, as I afterwards learned, sailed together for years. "Did he hit him hard?" said Barney, slowly, and giving his mouth a rub with the back of his hand. "That's what I said, messmate; don't get chewin' o' my words over five hundred times to show off afore our young orficer. Did he hit him hard?" "Orfle!" said Barney. "Then why didn't you say so afore, 'stead o' getting into bad habits, a-saying things for the sake o' talking. Now, Neb Dumlow, just look the young gent straight in the face and say what you thinks." "Couldn't ha' hit him no harder," growled the great fellow in his deep bass voice. "Not with one hand," acquiesced Hampton; "but you needn't ha' screwed both your eyes out o' sight to say it, matey. Bad habit o' hisn, sir," he continued, turning to me, "but I'm a-trying to break him on it. Neb's a good sort o' chap if you could straighten his eyes; arn't you Neb?" "Dunno," growled the man. "Then it's a good job for you as I do, mate. Ay, the skipper did give Master Jarette a floorer, and I'm sorry for it." "Why," I said, "if he deserved it?" "Well, you see, sir, it's like this; if me or Neb or Barney there had scared one of the officers, and the skipper had knocked us down, why, we shouldn't ha' liked it--eh, mates?" "No," came in a growl. "Course not; but then we're Englishmen, and knowing as we was in the wrong, why, next day we should have forgot all about it." "Ay, ay," growled Dumlow, and Barney nodded his acquiescence. "But strikes me, sir--you needn't tell the skipper I says so, because p'r'aps I'm wrong--strikes me as that chap won't forget it, and I should be sorry for there to be any more rows with ladies on board, 'cause they don't like it. But I say, sir!" "Yes, Hampton," I replied. "I thought as Mr Walters as had been to sea afore was going to put you through it all. When's he going to show on deck?" "Oh, he'll come up as soon as he's well enough," I said. "If I was skipper, he'd be well enough now," said the sailor, roughly. "More you gives way to being sea-sick, more you may. I don't say as it's nice, far from it; but if a man shows fight, he soon gets too many for it. Here's him been a voyage, and you arn't. He lies below, below, below in his bunk, and you goes about just as if you was at home." "Because I haven't been ill," I said, laughing. "No, sir, you arn't; but if I was you, I'd soon go down and cure him." "How?" I said, expecting to hear of some good old remedy. "Physic, sir." "Yes, what physic?" I said. "Bucket o' water, sir,--take a hair o' the dog as bit you, as the Scotch chaps say,--fresh dipped."