“‘Orf?’ ses Joe; ‘no, o’ course it ain’t. Why don’t you use some soap?’
“‘Soap,’ answers Bill, mad-like; ‘why, I’ve used more soap than I’ve used for six months in the ordinary way.’
“That’s no good,’ ses Joe; ‘give yourself a good wash.’
“Bill put down the soap then very careful, and went over to ’im and told him all the dreadful things he’d do to him when he got strong agin, and then Bob Pullin got out of his bunk an’ ’ad a try on his face. Him an’ Bill kept washing and then taking each other to the light and trying to believe it was coming off until they got sick of it, and then Bill, ’e up with his foot and capsized the bucket, and walked up and down the fo’c’s’le raving.
“‘Well, the carpenter put it on,’ ses a voice, ‘make ’im take it orf.’
“You wouldn’t believe the job we ’ad to wake that man up. He wasn’t fairly woke till he was hauled out of ’is bunk an’ set down opposite them two pore black fellers an’ told to make ’em white again.
“‘I don’t believe as there’s anything will touch it,’ he says, at last. ‘I forgot all about that.’
“‘Do you mean to say,’ bawls Bill, ‘that we’ve got to be black all the rest of our life?’
“‘Cert’nly not,’ ses the carpenter, indignantly, ‘it’ll wear off in time; shaving every morning ’ll ’elp it, I should say.’
“‘I’ll get my razor now,’ ses Bill, in a awful voice; ‘don’t let ’im go, Bob. I’ll ’ack ’is head orf.’