The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval LieutenantCupples, George
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The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant
Cupples, George
Sea stories; Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
"'Well, Jack, by this time bein' near Serry Loney, next day or so we got
in--where, what does they do but they _lubberrates_ us all, as they
calls it, into a barracoon ashore, till sich time as the slaver ud be
condemned--an' off goes the tender down coast again. Arter that, they
treats us well enough, but still I dursn't say a word; for one day, as
we goed to work makin' our huts, there I twigs a printed bill upon the
church-wall, holdin' out a reward, d' ye see, consarnin' the piratecy,
with my oun name and my very build logged down--ownly, be hanged if they
doesn't tack on to it all, by way of a topgallant ink-jury to a man,
these here words--"He's a very ugly feller--looks like a furriner."
Well, mate, I ain't a young maiden, sure enough, but, thinks I, afore I
fell foul o' that blasted fittish-man an' his nut, cuss me if I looks
jist so bad as that 'ere! So ye know this goes more to my heart nor
aught else, till there I spells out another confounded lie in the bill,
as how Captin Price's men had mutinied again him, and murdered the
brig's crew--when, in course, I sees the villain's whole traverse at
once. So sayin', I watched my chance one night an' went aboard a Yankee
brig as were to sail next day; an' I tells the skipper part o' the
story, offerin' for to work my passage across for nothing; which, says
he, "It's a hinterestin' narritif"--them was his words; and, says he,
"It's a land o' freedom is the States, an' no mistake--ain't there no
more on ye in the like case?" he says. "Not as I knows on, sir," I
answers; an' says he, "Plenty o' coloured gen'lmen there is yonder, all
in silks an' satins; an' I hear," says he, "there's one on 'em has a
chance o' bein' President next time--anyhow I'm your friend," says he,
quite hearty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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