a long brass nine, Here you, ship s boy, he cried, out o that! Off
with you to the cook and get some work.
And then as I was hurrying off I heard him say, quite loudly, to the
doctor, I ll have no favourites on my ship.
I assure you I was quite of the squire s way of thinking, and hated the
captain deeply.
X
The Voyage
All that night we were in a great bustle getting things stowed in their
place, and boatfuls of the squire s friends, Mr. Blandly and the like,
coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return. We never had
a night at the Admiral Benbow when I had half the work; and I was
dog-tired when, a little before dawn, the boatswain sounded his pipe
and the crew began to man the capstan-bars. I might have been twice
as weary, yet I would not have left the deck, all was so new and
interesting to me--the brief commands, the shrill note of the whistle,
the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship s lanterns.
Now, Barbecue, tip us a stave, cried one voice.
The old one, cried another.
Aye, aye, mates, said Long John, who was standing by, with his crutch
under his arm, and at once broke out in the air and words I knew so
well:
Fifteen men on the dead man s chest--
And then the whole crew bore chorus:--
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
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