's overtaken before he is aware of it. Now that's not the case with
me; I keep sober when there's work to be done; and when I knows that
everything is safe under hatches, and no fear of nothing, why then I
gets drunk like a rational being, with my eyes open--'cause why?--'cause
I chooses."

"That's exactly my notion of the thing," observed Tom, draining his
pannikin, and handing it over to his father for a fresh supply.

"Mind you keep to that notion, Tom, when you gets in the king's sarvice,
that's all; or you'll be sure to have your back scratched, which I
understand is no joke after all. Yet I do remember once, in a ship I
was in, when half-a-dozen fellows were all fighting who should be
flogged."

"Pray give us that yarn, father; but before you begin just fill my
pannikin. I shoved it over half-an-hour ago, just by way of a hint."

"Well then," said old Tom, pouring out some spirits into Tom's pannikin,
"it was just as follows. It was when the ship was lying at anchor in
Bermuda harbour, that the purser sent a breaker of spirits on shore to
be taken up to some lady's house whom he was very anxious to splice, and
I suppose that he found a glass of grog helped the matter. Now, there
were about twenty of the men who had liberty to go on shore, to stretch
their limbs--little else could they do, poor fellows for the first
lieutenant looked sharp after their kits to see that they did not sell
any of their rigging; and as for money, we had been five years without
touching a farthing of pay, and I don't suppose there was a matter of
threepence among the men before the mast. However, liberty's liberty
after all; and if they couldn't go ashore and get glorious, rather than
not go on shore at all, they went ashore and kept sober perforce. I do
think, myself, it's a very bad thing to keep the seamen without a
farthing for so long--for you see a man who will be very honest with a
few shillings in his pocket is often tempted to help himself, just for
the sake of getting a glass or two of grog, and the temptation's very
great, that's sartain, 'ticularly in a hot climate, when the sun
scorches you, and the very ground itself is so heated that you can
hardly bear the naked foot to it. [_This has been corrected; the men
have for some time received a portion of their pay on foreign stations,
and this portion has been greatly increased during Sir James Graham's
administration_.] But to go on. The yawl was ordered on shore f