184 THE GAM. 



And now they had taken to telling land-yarns and 

 stories of recent ports. Plainly, the gam was 

 about gammed out. 



" Well, chummy, what about Johanna ? v 



"Dye know the place?" 



" Know it ? Guess I do. Here's my tarry 

 flipper on it ! Know Johanny, do I ? I knowed 

 Johanny 'fore I'd learnt my three L's. It's got 

 high hills 'round it, an' you can see 'em forty mile 

 out to sea, — ain't I right ? An' them white stone 

 houses in the town — they ain't no taller, b'gosh, 

 than a whaleship's hurricane house. Ain't that 

 so, messmate ? An' them copper-colored natives, 

 an' their gaff-tops'l turbans, an' their white gowns 

 as if they was goin' to be buried at sea, an' the 

 beetle-nut they chews that gits their teeth as 

 black as tar an' gits the deck as red as blood, 

 b'gosh, so nothin' short o' the prayer-books '11 

 take it off ag'in, — don't I remember 'em ? Who 

 says I ain't been to Johanny ? " 



But the third voice, who seemed to think him- 

 self particularly predestined and foreordained to 

 man the pumps and keep the stories flowing, 

 urged again, " What about the old man and the 

 natives ? Tell us, chummy. " 



So " Bilge " Dennett took his pipe out of his 

 broad mouth, and tapping the bowl gently against 



