ole character of the man in it? Could
mortal man force it down? Could the fingers of woman coax it? Would ye
appeal to it with argument? Would hair's grease, bear's grease ----"

But his peroration was suddenly cut short by a rush from behind, one man
tumbling over another on the road to the forecastle. Dennis himself was
thrown against Alister, and his hand came heavily down on the stubborn
lock of hair.

"It's these fellows, bad manners to them," he explained; but I think
Alister suspected a joke at his expense, and putting his arms suddenly
behind him, he seized Dennis by the legs and hoisted him on to his back
as if he had been a child. In this fashion the hero of the occasion was
carried to a place of honour, and deposited (not too gently) on the top
of an inverted deck-tub, amid the cheers and laughter of all concerned.

Round another tub--a shallow oak one, tidily hooped with cooper--which
served as spittoon, a solemn circle of smokers was already assembled.
They disturbed themselves to salute Dennis, and to make room for others
to join them, and then the enlarged circle puffed and kept silence as
before. I was watching the colour come and go on the Irish boy's face,
and he was making comical signs to me to show his embarrassment, when
Mr. Johnson shouted for the grog-tub to be sent aft, and the boatswain
summoned me to get it and follow him.

The smokers were not more silent than we, as the third mate slowly
measured the rum--half a gill a head--into the grog-tub. But when this
solemnity was over and he began to add the water, a very spirited
dialogue ensued; Mr. Johnson (so far as I could understand it)
maintaining that "two-water grog" was the rule of the ships on their
line, and the boatswain pleading that this being a "special issue" was
apart from general rules, and that it would be more complimentary to the
"young gentleman" to have the grog a little stronger. How it ended I do
not know; I know I thought my "tot" very nasty, and not improved by the
reek of strong tobacco in the midst of which we drank it, to Dennis
O'Moore's very good health.

When the boatswain and I got back to the forecastle, carrying the
grog-tub, we found the company as we had left it, except that there was
a peculiarly bland expression on every man's face as he listened to a
song that the cook was singing. It was a very love-lorn, lamentable, and
lengthy song, three qualities which alone would recommend it to any
audience of Jac