"The Cap'n, my Lord," said Tom, twitching up his duck trowsers on the port side, "gave us leave to go ashore; and we had barely set foot on dry land, than a sort of fellow, neither fish nor man, comes to us, and, says he, in a rum kind of a lingo, 'My lads, I'll show you about the town,' You know, my Lord, as well as I does,——"
"I don't want any of your palavering," interrupted R——; "but I want to know why the devil you went and made beasts of yourselves?"
"Wery good, my Lord, I'm coming to the sarcumstances; but we warn't drunk, my Lord—notottoll."
"D—— saw you drunk," said R——.
"No, my Lord, no;" calmly said Tom, "the Cap'n carn't substanshate that air. We warn't drunk, my Lord,—notottoll."
"How can you stand there," interrupted D—— warmly, "and try to humbug my Lord in that kind of a way?"
"Not a bit of it," said R——; "he can't humbug me; and don't fret yourself about that."
"That's nothing more nor less than I would ax of your Lordship," interposed Tom; and, edging in a piece of opportune sentiment, he continued, "I have sailed three seasons with your Lordship, and I have always bore myself like a British sailor, as I be. We was joyful-like to stretch our timbers; but we warn't drunk, my Lord, notottoll."
"If you were not at all drunk," replied R——, "you were very nearly drowned; and you don't mean to tell me, that you could ever capsize that dingy without being drunk?"
"Notottoll, my Lord," persisted Tom; "Dick, my Lord, took a broad sheer to starboard, and capsized the boat. We warn't drunk, my Lord, notottoll."