6o 



MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



the captain was a coarse, vulgar man, and he said, " Oh, that be blowed ! that 

 wasn't any proof that he knew how to wash dishes or handle a slush-bucket, and 

 he guessed he didn't want him." This was altogether the most extraordinary- 

 thing that ever happened to Jacob in all his life. A compliment from a teacher, 

 on a tract, had never failed to move the tenderest emotions of ship captains, and 

 open the way to all oiBces of honor and profit in their gift — it never had in any 

 book that ever he had read. He could hardly believe his senses. 



This boy always had a hard time of it. Nothing ever came out according to 

 theauthorities ^^^^^^^^^^^^ with him. Atlast, 



upon wicked Tom Jones. But just 



at that moment Alderman McWelter, full of wrath, stepped in. All the bad 

 boys ran away, but Jacob Blivens rose in conscious innocence and began one of 

 those stately little Sunday-school-book speeches which always commence with 

 "Oh, sir!" in dead opposition to the fact that no boy, good or bad, ever starts 

 a remark with " Oh, sir." But the alderman never waited to hear the rest. He 

 took Jacob Blivens by the ear and turned him around, and hit him a whack in 

 the rear with the flat of his hand ; and in an instant that good little boy shot out 



