what will be the consequence? Why, he'll be everlastingly carrying on,
driving the ship all she'll bear, carrying on to the very last minute,
and then it'll be `all hands shorten sail' to save the spars, instead of
handing his canvas in good time, by which means the watch could do all
the work. Now, you wait a bit, mates, and you'll see I'm right."

There were several melancholy shakes of the head at this, indicative of
a belief on the part of the shakers that these prognostications would
prove only too true.

"But what's all this got to do with piratin'?" persisted Parsons.

"Oh--well--why, everything," returned Williams. "Here we are, as I was
saying, hard worked, badly fed, and badly paid; whilst if we was the
crew of a pirate clipper we should have nothing to do but trim sails, we
should live upon the fat of the land, and in six months, if our cruise
was a lucky one, we could chuck up the sea and live like princes ashore
for the rest of our days."

Parsons burst into a hearty laugh.

"Why, Williams," he said, "I wouldn't ha' believed you was such a
greenhorn. You can't _mean_ what you're sayin', shipmate. I don't
suppose you've ever been a pirate, and I'm precious certain I never
have--or I don't believe we should either of us be sittin' in this here
snug fo'c's'le to-night--so I reckon neither of us knows very much about
the business. But anybody, not a born fool, must understand without
much tellin' that a pirate's life wouldn't be worth havin'. As to work,
he'd have to work just as hard as any of us, with the chance of bein'
shot at a minute's notice by the skipper or either of the mates, if he
didn't happen to do his work just exactly to their likin'. Then he'd be
in constant dread of bein' overhauled by a man-o'-war, and mayhap strung
up to the yard-arm; he daresn't venture into a civilised port, to save
his life. And then, what about the murders he has to commit? Faugh! no
piratin' for me, thank 'ee."

"Nobody's wanting you, Tim Parsons, or anybody else, to go pirating" was
the rejoinder. "I was only talking about the thing in a general sort of
a way. But, though, as you say, I never was a pirate myself, I happen
to know that the trade ain't quite such a bad one as you'd make out
after all. First and foremost, there's no occasion for murdering at
all. `Dead men tell no tales,' we know; but there's ways of stopping
the telling of tales without cutting men's throats. There's islands
enough s