There was old Rook and Jennings, and another whom I'll be d--d
before I name, that knew what fighting was. As for my own share,
d'ye see, I am none of those that hallo in their own commendation:
but if so be that I were minded to stand my own trumpeter, some of
those little fellows that hold their heads so high would be taken
all aback, as the saying is: they would be ashamed to show their
colours, d-- my eyes! I once lay eight glasses alongside of the
Flour de Louse, a French man-of-war, though her mettle was heavier,
and her complement larger by a hundred hands than mine. You, Jack
Hatchway, d-- ye, what d'ye grin at! D'ye think I tell a story,
because you never heard it before?"
"Why, look ye, sir," answered the lieutenant, "I am glad to find you
can stand your own trumpeter on occasion; though I wish you would
change the tune, for that is the same you have been piping every
watch for these ten months past. Tunley himself will tell you he
has heard it five hundred times."--"God forgive you! Mr. Hatchway,"
said the landlord, interrupting him; "as I am an honest man and a
housekeeper, I never heard a syllable of the matter.
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