Captain Norris noticed the struggle that she made. Into his sombre eyes there came a spark of interest.
"How do they call ye, lad?" he asked.
Before she had thought, out popped her own name.
"Merrylips, an't like you, sir."
She heard a chuckle go round the table. She did not realize that Merrylips was a nickname that might be given to a boy as well as to a girl. So she did not dream that the officers were laughing at a little boy who told his pet-name to strangers. Instead she thought that she had told her secret and that they knew her for a girl. At that she was so frightened that she hardly knew what she did.
Captain Norris broke out impatiently:—
"No, no, ye little bufflehead! I asked your given name."
In her fright Merrylips could think of but one name, among all the boys' names in the world. That was the one that had so taken her fancy the day before. She knew that she must not say it. But while she was thinking how dreadful it would be if she did say it, she let it slip off her tongue:—
"Tibbott, sir."
Then indeed she knew that Captain Norris would be angry at her for taking his name. She would have run away, if she had not been too scared to move.