"That's so. We've all got to behave as shipmates, and we mustn't scrag the bosn."
"I can take an 'int," quoth Red, who was gulping down the dates, stones and all. "I sai—wot d'ye think the josher said in there? Axed me my catechism, s'elp me, and I 'ad to write the answers.
"''Ad I served before? Yes, before the mast.
"'Married? No, thank Gawd.
"'Could I read and write?' So I wrote down, 'Hain't I a-doing of it?
"'Character from the clergyman of my parish?' Parish, mind you. Mine's the sea, so I writes down, 'Reverend Davy Jones don't give no discharges.
"'Care and management of 'orses?' Well, I said, I'd 'ove some overboard acrost the Western.
"Makes me strip bare, buff 'n buttocks.
"And take them oaths. Oaths from me! I axed 'im if I looked like a traitor, or a Dago."
"A Dago, like me?"