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
"'Done!' and away they went. 'That fool, Fawd, you know, Cawlins, makes
one sick with his stuff; I declare he chews little bits of tobacco in
our room till he vomits as much as before,' said Winterton. 'I tell you
what, Cawlins, you're a sensible man--I'll let you into a secret! What
do you think--there's the deucedest pretty girl in the vessel, we've
none of us seen except myself; I caught a sight of her this very
mawning. She don't visit the cuddy at all; papa's proud, you pusseeve--a
nabob, in short!' 'Oh dear!' said I. 'Yes, I do assure you, quite a
bew-ty! What's to be done?--we absolutely must meet her, eh, Cawlins?'
Here I mused a bit. 'Oh!' said I, looking up again, 'shall we send a
deputation, do you think?' 'Or get up a ball, Cawlins? Hallo, what's
this?' said he, leaning over the breast-rail to look at a stout lady who
was lugging a chubby little boy of three or four, half dressed, up the
poop-stair, while her careful husband and a couple of daughters blocked
it up above. 'See, Tommy, dear!' said she, 'look at the _land_--the nice
land, you know, Tommy.' 'Come away, my love,' said her spouse, 'else
you won't see it.' Tommy, however, hung back manfully. 'Tommy don't want
wook at _yand_,' sang out he, kicking the deck; 'it all such 'mell of a
sheep, ma; me wook at 'at man wis _gate feel_. Fare other _feel_, man?
Oh, fat a ugwy man!' The honest tar at the wheel pulled up his shirt,
and looked terribly cut at this plain remark on his phiz, which
certainly wasn't the most beautiful; meanwhile he had the leech of the
mainto'gallant-sail shaking. 'Mind your helm, there,' sung out the
second mate from the capstan. 'My good man,' said the lady, 'will you be
so kind as to show us the land?' 'Ay, ay, sir,' growled he, putting up
his weather spokes; 'sorry I carn't, ma'am--please not to speak to the
man at the wheel.' Jacobs was coiling down the ropes on a carronade
close by, and stepped forward: 'Beg your ladyship's pardon,' said he,
'but if ye'll give me charge o' the youngster till you goes on the
poop--why, I've got a babby at home myself.' The stout lady handed him
over, and Jacobs managed the little chap wonderfully. This was the first
time Tommy had been on deck since leaving home, and he couldn't see over
the high bulwarks, so he fancied it was a house he was in. 'Oh, suts big
_tees, man_,' shouted he, clapping his hands as soon as he noticed the
sails and rigging aloft; 'suts warge birds in a _tees_.' 'Ay, ay, my
little man,' answered Jacobs, 'that's the wonderful _tree_. Did ye ever
hear Jack and the Bean-stalk, Tommy?' 'Oh, 'ess, to be soo, _man_,' said
Tommy, scornfully, as if he should think he had.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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