“I must say she ’ad a good time of it. We was having splendid weather, and there wasn’t much work for anybody; consequently, when she wasn’t receiving good advice from the skipper and the mate, she was receiving attention from both the second and third officers. Mr. Scott, the second, didn’t seem to take much notice of her for a day or two, and the first I saw of his being in love was ’is being very rude to Mr. Fisher and giving up bad langwidge, so sudden it’s a wonder it didn’t do ’im a injury.
“I think the gal rather enjoyed their attentions at first, but arter a time she got fairly tired of it. She never ’ad no rest, pore thing. If she was up on deck looking over the side the third officer would come up and talk romantic to ’er about the sea and the lonely lives of sailor-men, and I acturally ’eard Mr. Scott repeating poetry to her. The skipper ’eard it too, and being suspicious o’ poetry, and not having heard clearly, called him up to ’im and made ’im say it all over agin to ’im. ’E didn’t seem quite to know wot to make of it, so ’e calls up the mate for ’im to hear it. The mate said it was rubbish, and the skipper told Mr. Scott that if ever he was taken that way agin ’e’d ’ear more of it.
“There was no doubt about them two young fellers being genuine. She ’appened to say one day that she could never, never care for a man who drank and smoked, and I’m blest if both of ’em didn’t give ’er their pipes to chuck overboard, and the agony those two chaps used to suffer when they saw other people smoking was pitiful to witness.
“It got to such a pitch at last that the mate, who, as I said afore, was a very particular man, called another committee meeting. It was a very solemn affair, and ’e made a long speech in which he said he was the father of a family, and that the second and third officers was far too attentive to Miss Mallow, and ’e asked the skipper to stop it.
“‘How?’ ses the skipper.
“‘Stop the draught-playing and the cardplaying and the poetry,’ ses the mate; ‘the gal’s getting too much attention; she’ll have ’er ’ead turned. Put your foot down, sir, and stop it.’
“The skipper was so struck by what he said, that he not only did that, but he went and forbid them two young men to speak to the gal except at meal times, or when the conversation was general. None of ’em liked it, though the gal pretended to, and for the matter of a week things was very quiet in the cabin, not to say sulky.
“Things got back to their old style agin in a very curious way. I’d just set the tea in the cabin one afternoon, and ’ad stopped at the foot of the companion-ladder to let the skipper and Mr. Fisher come down, when we suddenly ’eard a loud box on the ear. We all rushed into the cabin at once, and there was the mate looking fairly thunderstruck, with his hand to his face, and Miss Mallow glaring at ’im.
“‘Mr. Jackson,’ ses the skipper, in a awful voice, ‘what’s this?’
“‘Ask her,’ shouts the mate. ‘I think she’s gone mad or something.’