"I a thief, sir! Well, how you can say that, I don't know. Why, I might as well say that you stole 'em."
"Silence! What did you have for your dinner yesterday?"
"Let me see. I had two chops—some taters—"
"Hang you, you little thief! Why did you deny having stolen them?"
"I denigh avin a hooked them, sir. Oh! where does you expect to go to?"
"I'll flog you. Go to the pantry and think over that. As soon as we're in port and I can get a steward. I'll flog you."
"Well, I never. You flog me for eatin' my dinner. I'm allowed as much as I can eat by the government, and you takes and grabs my rashions, and gets paid for 'em, and I eats yer leavins,—them yesterday were two chops,—now how you're going to flog me for that, I can't see."
"Silence!"
The boy Jordun pulled his forelock, and left the captain's presence.
The ship had been cruising about in the Gulf of Tartary for over four months, and fresh provisions were getting low, when one morning they sighted a French man-of-war, Le Terrible, and Puffeigh received a present of three sheep from her commander. Most captains under such circumstances would have divided them with their officers, but he was too mean, and kept them all to himself; the weather being cold the meat did not spoil when killed.