go ashore; and we had barely set foot on
dry land, than a sort of fellow, neither fish nor man, comes to us, and,
says he, in a rum kind of a lingo, 'My lads, I'll show you about the
town,' You know, my Lord, as well as I does,----"

"I don't want any of your palavering," interrupted R----; "but I want to
know why the devil you went and made beasts of yourselves?"

"Wery good, my Lord, I'm coming to the sarcumstances; but we warn't
drunk, my Lord--notottoll."

"D---- saw you drunk," said R----.

"No, my Lord, no;" calmly said Tom, "the Cap'n carn't substanshate that
air. We warn't drunk, my Lord,--notottoll."

"How can you stand there," interrupted D---- warmly, "and try to humbug
my Lord in that kind of a way?"

"Not a bit of it," said R----; "he can't humbug me; and don't fret
yourself about that."

"That's nothing more nor less than I would ax of your Lordship,"
interposed Tom; and, edging in a piece of opportune sentiment, he
continued, "I have sailed three seasons with your Lordship, and I have
always bore myself like a British sailor, as I be. We was joyful-like to
stretch our timbers; but we warn't drunk, my Lord, notottoll."

"If you were not at all drunk," replied R----, "you were very nearly
drowned; and you don't mean to tell me, that you could ever capsize that
dingy without being drunk?"

"Notottoll, my Lord," persisted Tom; "Dick, my Lord, took a broad sheer
to starboard, and capsized the boat. We warn't drunk, my Lord,
notottoll."

"Do you intend to say you three had no spirits to drink the whole time
you were ashore?" asked R----.

"Sperits, my Lord! they ain't got such gear in this air place."

"How do you know?" R---- said.

"Bekase, I enkquired, my Lord."

"Oh! did you inquire in the streets?" questioned R----.

"No, my Lord; I axes in a cabbarette, as they calls it," Tom answered.

"Then you went into a cabaret, and drank nothing. _Very_, like, a,
whale," said R---- slowly.

"Notottoll, my Lord, we had a bottle of ordonnor_y_."

"What's that?" asked R----, a little puzzled.

"_Rot-gut_, my Lord," ejaculated Tom, with emphasis; "and if, my Lord, a
man wants to get the jandiss, I recommends vang ordonnor_y_;" and down
went Tom's fist, with a loud report, into the palm of his left hand. I
burst into a shout of laughter at the comicality of Tom's melancholy
face, and the smacking of his lips, as he called to mind the acidity of
the wine; and R----, judge as he was, could not resis