One evening Tom was sitting by the fore-hatchway in conversation with Thompson, when he suddenly asked him "if he believed in ghosts?" Jerry, who imagined his shipmate was joking, at first laughed at the question, as he did not believe in any such appearances, and seldom scrupled to ridicule those who affirmed they did; but the serious manner of his companion soon attracted his attention in a way which prevented his taking it lightly.
"You laugh! Well, Jerry, believe it or not, I saw Polly a few minutes ago, and she smiled on me and then vanished. This is the sixteenth day of August; I won't forget this day."
"You're out of order, old man; it's the physic you're takin' has made you light-headed."
"No, I ain't light-headed; I know what I'm about; I say I saw Polly, and she's dead," saying which his head dropped, and he remained some time as if buried in deep thought.
"Come, come, old man, rouse a bit, Polly's all right; you've got the blues, and are out of sorts; you'll be all right in a day or two."
However, when Clare became better he did not lose the impression that his wife was dead, and although he went about his work as before, a great weight was at his heart. Thompson would approach the subject, and try to ascertain if his shipmate were still under the hallucination, but Tom evaded his questions, and almost resented his friend's officiousness.
Puffeigh continued his plan of retrenchment, and the boy Jordun was half-starved, being often indebted for a full meal to the officer's steward. Upon one occasion the commander actually directed half a fowl to be cooked for his dinner, and the remainder hung until the next day. Jordun severed the bird, and took half of it on deck in order to suspend it from the stay with the rest of the provisions, but presently returned to his master, saying, "he didn't dare hang it, as the men chaffed him so."
"Chaffed you! Who dared do that?"
"Why," blubbered the boy, "the whole bileing on 'em forward was a-larfin and cuttin' jokes at the arf of a fowl—askin' if we killed arf at a time, and I was afraid to hang it arter what they said. I can't bear to go agin pop'lar opinion like that, it's too trying."
"Popular opinion, you little ass! Who put that rubbish into your head?"