SCOTCH JACK. 311 



dearly loved the vessel, and her officers, and would 

 not leave on any account, but for the fact that he 

 had a wife and family at Cape Town, who, he 

 feared, needed his protection. 



" You impudent varlet, I've a mind to keep you, 

 as punishment for your sauce," said the skipper. 



" Do so, if y;u please," answered Jack ; " I don't 

 like to stay longer from my family, but you have 

 such an agreeable way with you that I could 

 easily find it in niy heart to make the sacrifice." 



This allusion to the captain's " agreeable way '' 

 capped the climax. Foaming at the mouth, he 

 advanced toward Jack, who stood, meekly smiling, 

 before him. He dared not strike him. A single 

 blow would have been the signal for a general 

 melee, in which, although the crew would have 

 doubtless suffered for it afterward, he knew he 

 would fare very roughly. 



So the worthy man contented himself with 

 applying to Jack all manner of opprobrious epi- 

 thets, calling him a lazy scoundrel, a mutinous 

 rascal, and declaring that he was not deserving of 

 so good a craft as the Annie, and could not appre 

 ciate the generous treatment he had received. All 

 this Jack bore with imperturbable gravity. 



Bat when the skipper, stung possibly by his 

 coolness, ventured to call him " no sailor," Jack, 

 fire flashing from his eyes, stepped rp to him and 

 said, "You wretched North-counvrymar you 

 talk of sailorship. There never was a sailor in all 

 your miserable place. There is not in a million 



