The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval LieutenantCupples, George
General
The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant
Cupples, George
Sea stories; Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
bounty, you know.' Here I was fain to slack down and give a hearty
laugh, particularly at recognising Bill, who had been a shipmate of
Jacobs and myself in the old _Pandora_, and was nicknamed 'Green'--I
believe from a small adventure of ours--so I gave the men half-a-guinea
a piece to carry them on. 'Long life to your honour,' said they; and
said Tom, 'If I might make so bould, sir, if your honour has got a ship
yet, we all knows ye, sir, and we'd enter, if 'twas for the North Pole
itself.' 'No, my lad,' said I, 'I'm sorry to say I have not got so far
yet. Dykes, my man, can you tell me where your old messmate Jacobs has
got to?' 'Why, sir,' replied Bill, 'I did hear he was livin' at Wapping
with his wife, where we means to give him a call too, sir.' 'Good day,
your honour,' said all of them, as they put on their hats to go, and
covered their curiosity again with his tarpaulin. 'I'm blessed, Bill,'
said Tom, 'but we'll knock off this here carrivanning now, and put
before the wind for Blackwall,' 'Won't you give your savage his freedom,
then?' I asked. 'Sartinly, your honour,' replied the roguish foretopman,
his eye twinkling as he saw that I enjoyed the joke. 'Now, Mick, my lad,
ye must run like the devil so soon as we casts ye off.' 'Oh, by the
powers, thry me!' said the Irishman; 'I'm sick tired o' this cannible
minnatchery. By the holy Moses, though, I must have a dhrop o' dew in
me, or I'll fall!' Mick accordingly swigged off a noggin of gin, and
declared himself ready to start. 'Head due nor'-east from the sun, Mick,
and we'll pick you up in the woods, and rig you out all square again,'
said the captain of the gang, before presenting himself to the mob
outside. 'Now, gemmen and ladies all,' said the sailor coolly, 'ye see
we're bent on givin' this here poor unfort'nate his liberty--an' bein'
tould we've got the law on our side, why, we means to do it. More by
token, there's a leftenant in the Roy'l Navy aboard there, as has made
up the little salvage-money, bein' poor men, orderin' us for to do
it--so look out. If ye only gives him a clear offing, he'll not do no
harm. Steady, Bill--slack off the starboard sheet, Jack--let go--all!'
'Oh! oh!--no! no!--for God's sake!' screamed the bystanders, as they
scuttled off to both hands--'shame, shame--knock un down, catch
un--tipstaff, beadle!' 'Hurrah!' roared the boys, and off went Mick
O'Hooney in fine style, flourishing his top-maul, with a wild
'hullaloo,' right away over a fence, into a garden, and across a field
towards the nearest wood. Everybody fell out of his way as he dashed on;
then some running after him, dogs barking, and the whole of the seamen
giving chase with their tarpaulins in their hands, as if to drive him
far enough into the country. The whole thing was extremely rich, seen
through the open air from the tavern window, where I sat laughing till
the tears came into my eyes, at Jack-tars' roguishness and the stupefied
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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