"In the meantime the gentleman in the plaid cloak, who was seated by me, smoked his cigar without saying a word. I commenced a conversation with him relative to my profession, and asked him whether it was not very difficult to learn. "'Larn,' cried the sailor, interrupting us, 'no; it may be difficult for such chaps as me before the mast to larn, but you, I presume, is a reefer, and they a'n't got much to larn, 'cause why, they pipeclays their weekly accounts, and walks up and down with their hands in their pockets. You must larn to chaw baccy, drink grog, and call the cat a beggar, and then you knows all a midshipman's expected to know now-a-days. Ar'n't I right, sir?' said the sailor, appealing to the gentleman in a plaid cloak. 'I axes you, because I see you're a sailor by the cut of your jib. Beg pardon, sir,' continued he, touching his hat, 'hope no offence.' "'I am afraid that you have nearly hit the mark, my good fellow,' replied the gentleman. [Sidenote: _THE DRUNKEN SAILOR_] "The drunken fellow then entered into conversation with him, stating that he had been paid off from the 'Audacious' at Portsmouth, and had come up to London to spend his money with his messmates; but that yesterday he had discovered that a Jew at Portsmouth had sold him a seal as gold for fifteen shillings, which proved to be copper, and that he was going back to Portsmouth to give the Jew a couple of black eyes for his rascality, and that when he had done that he was to return to his messmates, who had promised to drink success to the expedition at the 'Cock and Bottle,' St. Martin's Lane, until he should return. "The gentleman in the plaid cloak commended him very much for his resolution: for he said, 'that although the journey to and from Portsmouth would cost twice the value of a gold seal, yet that in the end it might be worth a _Jew's eye_.' What he meant I did not comprehend.