"I am not aware that we have insulted you in a single instance, to say nothing of heaping insults upon you," replied Dory.
"We spoke to you twenty times, and you refused to answer us, or take the slightest notice of us," answered Mad, with energy, as though he believed he had made a valid charge; and he even got up a little indignation to go with it. "We invited you to race with us, and you would not deign to make any reply. We think we are entitled to a civil answer when we ask a question."
"Certainly you are when you ask a civil question; but every time you spoke to us you addressed us as 'Tinkers,' 'Greasers,' 'Chip-makers,' or some such insulting epithet. When we were insulted we simply maintained silence," answered Dory.
"Are you not Tinkers, Chip-makers, and Machine-greasers?" demanded Mad Twinker.
"Whatever we are, these names were applied to us as terms of reproach, and were insulting."
"We don't see it."
The Chesterfields clapped their hands again, as they had when the coxswain proposed the compromise. Just then the Gildrock was discovered pulling rapidly towards the scene.