"'James I want thee to go in the ship, and I will give thee—'
Here he marked a 7 in the sand, and then slowly carried his cane round in a circle, and resting the point of it, looked in my face.
"'Yes,' said I, 'I'll go for that.'
"But as I spoke, with a slight movement of the wrist he finished the last figure, by swinging a tangent to the circle. As I looked down again, it read 79.
"'No,' said I, indignantly, 'I'll see you hanged first!'
"'James, James,' said Uncle Peleg, 'don't lose thy temper. Thee shall go in the Poor Richard, and,'—nudging me in the ribs,'we'll have no tail to the matter at all.'
"'All right,' I answered. He rubbed it out again with his foot.
"'Now,' said he, 'come right up to the store and put thy name down. Thee must go in the ship; but really, James, I didn't think thee would ask me such a lay as that. Thee needn't tell the other boatsteerers what thee gets.'"
Father Grafton shook his sides with merriment at this anecdote, and the captain now rose to go below.
"Well, Blacksmith," said he, "you are making rather a crooked wake. If you don't keep her straighter, the Pandora will overhaul us. Well, what do you think of these Portuguese?"