"Make more oil than sperm whales, don't they?" I asked.
"Yes, such as 'tis—make four or five hundred barrels sometimes!"
"Do they ever eat up boats?" I inquired.
"No, never fight with their heads; they wear 'bonnets' on their heads, and I suppose they don't like to rumple them."
"What are they made of?" asked Fisher. "Gauze and ribbons?"
"No—lice and barnacles," said the cooper.
"Do the bulls wear bonnets, too?"
"Yes, of course."
"Do they have new bonnets as often as the fashions change?"
The only answer was a warlike demonstration with a squilgee that lay at hand; and Fisher beat a retreat.