the skipper, "I'm going to try and knock a little
sense into that stupid 'ed o' yours. I've 'eard all about your silly
little games ashore. Your father said he couldn't manage you, so I'm
goin' to have a try, and you'll find I'm a very different sort o' man
to deal with to wot 'e is. The idea o' thinking this ship was a pirate.
Why, a boy your age ought to know there ain't such things nowadays."

"You told me you was," said the boy hotly, "else I wouldn't have come."

"That's just why I told you," said the skipper.

"But I didn't think you'd be such a fool as to believe it. Pirates,
indeed! Do we look like pirates?"

"You don't," said the boy with a sneer; "you look more like----"

"Like wot?" asked the skipper, edging closer to him. "Eh, like wot?"

"I forget the word," said Ralph, with strong good sense.

"Don't tell any lies now," said the skipper, flushing, as he heard
a chuckle from the mate. "Go on, out with it. Ill give you just two
minutes."

"I forget it," persisted Ralph.

"Dustman?" suggested the mate, coming to his assistance. "Coster,
chimbley-sweep, mudlark, pickpocket, convict washer-wom----"

"If you'll look after your dooty, George, instead o' interferin' in
matters that don't concern you," said the skipper in a choking voice, "I
shall be obliged. Now, then, you boy, what were you going to say I was
like?"

"Like the mate," said Ralph slowly.

"Don't tell lies," said the skipper furiously; "you couldn't 'ave forgot
that word."

"I didn't forget it," said Ralph, "but I didn't know how you'd like it."

The skipper looked at him dubiously, and pushing his cap from his brow
scratched his head.

"And I didn't know how the mate 'ud like it, either," continued the boy.

He relieved the skipper from an awkward dilemma by walking off to the
galley and starting on a bowl of potatoes. The master of the _Susan
Jane_ watched him blankly for some time and then looked round at the
mate.

"You won't get much change out of 'im," said the latter, with a nod;
"insultin' little devil."

The other made no reply, but as soon as the potatoes were finished set
his young friend to clean brass work, and after that to tidy the cabin
up and help the cook clean his pots and pans. Meantime the mate went
below and overhauled his chest.

"This is where he gets all them ideas from," he said, coming aft with a
big bundle of penny papers. "Look at the titles of 'em--'The Lion of the
Pacific,' 'The One-armed Buccan