“Yes,” continued Pirate Jim critically; “I don’t think he was any bigger nor you, Master Chitterlings, if as big, when he stood on the fork’stle of my ship and shot the captain o’ that East Injyman dead. We used to call him little Weevils, he was so young-like. But, bless your hearts, boys! he wa’n’t anything to Little Sammy Barlow, ez once crep’ up inter the captain’s stateroom on a Rooshin frigate, stabbed him to the heart with a jack-knife, then put on the captain’s uniform and his cocked hat, took command of the ship, and fout her hisself.”
“Wasn’t the captain’s clothes big for him?” asked B. Franklin Jenkins anxiously.
The janitor eyed young Jenkins with pained dignity.
“Didn’t I say the Rooshin captain was a small, a very small, man? Rooshins is small, likewise Greeks.”
A noble enthusiasm beamed in the faces of the youthful heroes.
“Was Barlow as large as me?” asked C. F. Adams Golightly, lifting his curls from his Jove-like brow.
“Yes; but, then, he hed hed, so to speak, experiences. It was allowed that he had pizened his schoolmaster afore he went to sea. But it’s dry talking, boys.”
Golightly drew a flask from his jacket and handed it to the janitor. It was his father’s best brandy. The heart of the honest old seaman was touched.
“Bless ye, my own pirate boy!” he said in a voice suffocating with emotion.
“I’ve got some tobacco,” said the youthful Jenkins, “but it’s fine cut; I use only that now.”