"He worked as handsome a pair o’ man-rope knots as I ever see, settin’ here this mornin’," said Cooper, compassionately. "He ’ll make a good smart sailor, but he needs to grow; he’s dreadful small to send aloft in a spell o’ weather. The cap’n don’t save himself, this v’y’ge, nor nobody else." "Come, you’d as good ’s hear what Starbuck’s b’en saying," said Chase, with a wink. He had been waiting impatiently for this digression to end. "That spry-tempered admiral o’ yourn don’t know how to treat a crew!" Starbuck burst forth, at this convenient opportunity. "Some on us gits a whack ivery time he parades the deck. He’s re’lly too outdacious for decent folks. This arternoon I was a-loungin’ on the gratin’s an’ got sort o’ drowsin’ off, an’ I niver heared him comin’ nor knowed he was there. Along he come like some upstropelous poppet an’ give me a cuff side o’ my head. I dodged the next one, an’ spoke up smart ’fore I knowed what I was doin’. ’Damn ye, le’ me be!’ says I, an’ he fetched me another on my nose here; most stunded me. "’I ’ll l’arn ye to make yourself sca’ce! Keep to the port-hand side where ye belong! Remember you ’re aboard a man-o’-war!’ says he, hollerin’ like a crowin’ pullet. ’’T ain’t no fishin’ smack! Go forrard! Out o’ the way with ye!’ says he, same ’s I was a stray dog. I run to the side, my nose was a-bleedin’ so, an’ I fumbled arter somethin’ to serve me for a hankicher. "’Here ’s mine,’ says he, ’but you ’ve got to understand there’s discipline on this frigate,’ says he. Joseph Fernald knows where I was," continued the sufferer; "you see me, Joseph, when you come past. ’Twa’n’t larboard nor starboard; ’twas right ’midships, ’less I may have rolled one way or t’other. I could ha’ squinched him so all the friends he’d ever needed ’d be clargy an’ saxon, an’ then to pass me his linning handkicher ’s if I was a young lady! I dove into my pockets an’ come upon this old piece o’ callamink I’d wropped up some ’baccy in. I never give a look at him; I d’ know but he gallded me more when he was pleasant ’n when he fetched me the clip. I ketched up a lingum-vitæ marlinspike I see by me an’ took arter him. I should ha’ hit him good, but he niver turned to look arter me, an’ I come to reason. If I’d had time, I’d ha’ hit him, if I’d made the rest o’ this v’y’ge in irons." "Lord sakes! don’t you bluster no more!" advised old Mr. Cooper soothingly, with a disapproving glance at the pleased audience. "Shipmasters like him ain’t goin’ to ask ye every mornin’ how seafarin’ agrees with ye. He ain’t goin’ to treat hisself nor none on us like passengers. He ain’t had three hours sleep a night sence this v’y’ge begun. He’s been studyin’ his charts this day, with his head set to ’em on the cabin table ’s if they showed the path to heaven. They was English charts, too, ’long by Bristol an’ up there in the Irish Sea. I see ’em through the skylight."