BETWEEN DKCKS. 425 



it's not likely he would bear any good will to Adam ; if it's not likely 

 he bore any good will to Adam, he would not have tried to do him any 

 good ; if he wouldn't have tried to do him any good, and gave the 

 apple, it's plain the apple must be intended to do mischief: now, if the 

 apple was intended to do mischief, it's plain the apple wasn't good to 

 eat, and if the apple wasn't good to eat, the apple couldn't go down, 

 and if the apple couldn't go down, it must have sticked in Adam's 

 throat ; and the end of it is, that if the apple sticked in his throat, as 

 there wasn't no doctors in those days, and it couldn't be distracted, there 

 it must have sticked to everlasting : and that's the reason we've got it 

 now ; and there's plenty of logic for ye." 



" Logic ! what's logic ?" 



" What I'se been talking it's the putting a thing in a con wincing 

 point o' view ; so, there you've got it all now, and tip me over the grog 

 and some baccer." 



" Are you con winced, Bob ?" 



" Yes, I suppose I am ; an't you ?" 



" Not altogether. This logic may be all very fine, but I'm bio wed 

 if I understand it. Howsomever, we're certain that Adam eat the apple, 

 and we suppose that it sticked in his throat. Come, now for the story." 



" Well, boys !" cried Duncan, " it was about a matter o' ten year ago, 

 that I sailed for a cruise of fifteen months, in the Firedrake, a bran-new, 

 beautiful-going, thirty-six gun frigate. By George ! but she was a 

 beauty ; I fancy I've got her now in my eye ; all sail set, decks to 

 the wind, starboard tack, bowling along like a witch, as she was, 

 water hissing up at her bows, green ripples flashing all about her, 

 and her streamers flacking aloft, like trains o' fire. I was young at the 

 time that is, younger than I am now 



" That's deucedly certain !" cried Bob. 



" Hold ye'r jaw, Bob and as merry and happy as the day was long. 

 Many's the watch I've held on her decks, with the moon a blinking 

 above, and the water flopping below, the wind sighing through the 

 cordage, and sights o' dolphins sporting about, poor things ! all looking 

 as merry as crickets. Many's the good story I've heard aboard her ; such 

 as 'ud make you crack your sides with laughing ; and many's the jolly 

 song we've sent to the clouds of a quiet night but I am getting a little 

 out of my reckoning. Well ! we cut across the Atlantic in glorious 

 style, sometimes hard down with a burst of bad weather, and sometimes 

 slap becalmed sails like rags sea like glass. But, on the whole, we 

 had a very pleasant voyage ; no end of amusements aboard us ; by the 

 bye, bless'd if we didn't get up a play ! upon my soul, we did, and I 

 was the Fair Penitent, though I didn't make a very good hand at it ; 

 and our boatswain was a feller in it, that they call Coragio, or Boragio, 

 or summut like that. Well, more o' that another time. We got to our 

 cruising-ground all in health and spirits, and began to look about us ; 

 but we hadn't much work. Now and then, perhaps, a tail of a gale would 

 take us, and oblige us to take in some of our wings ; but they generally 

 didn't last long, and we had the old row time, as they call it, of our sar- 

 vice to go over agin. We overhauled a few merchant brigs, and so on ; 

 sometimes we let 'em go, 'cause there wasn't much to keep them for, 

 aboard 'em ; and sometimes we kept 'em for prizes, and had 'em con- 



