Chucks--what do you mean?"

"Why, Mr Simple, the captain did not make an honest woman of her, as I
would have done; and the father discovered what was going on, and one
night the captain was brought on board run through the body. We sailed
immediately for Gibraltar, and it was a long while before he got round
again."

"Did you ever hear any more of the young lady?"

"Yes; about a year afterwards, I returned there in another ship. She
had been shut up in a convent, and forced to take the veil. Oh, Mr
Simple! if you knew how I loved that girl! I have never been more than
polite to a woman since, and shall die a bachelor. You can't think how
I was capsized the other day, when I looked at the house: I have hardly
touched beef or pork since, and am in debt two quarts of rum more than
my allowance."

We gained our station off the coast of Perpignan; and as soon as we made
the land, we were most provokingly driven off by a severe gale. I am
not about to make any remarks about the gale, for one storm is so like
another; but I mention it to account for a conversation which took
place, and with which I was very much amused. I was near to the captain
when he sent for Mr Muddle, the carpenter, who had been up to examine
the main-topsail yard, which had been reported as sprung.

"Well, Mr Muddle," said the captain.

"Sprung, sir, most decidedly; but I think we'll be able to _mitigate_
it."

"Will you be able to secure it for the present, Mr Muddle?" replied the
captain rather sharply.

"We'll _mitigate_ it, sir, in half-an-hour."

"I wish that you would use common phrases, when you speak to me, Mr
Muddle. I presume, by mitigate, you mean to say that you can secure it.
Do you mean so, sir, or do you not?"

"Yes, sir, that is what I mean, most decidedly. I hope no offence;
Captain Savage; but I did not intend to displease you by my language."

"Very good, Mr Muddle," replied the captain; "it's the first time that
I have spoken to you on the subject, recollect that it will be the
last."

"The first time!" replied the carpenter, who could not forget his
philosophy; "I beg your pardon, Captain Savage--you found just the same
fault with me on this quarter-deck 27,672 years ago, and--"

"If I did, Mr Muddle," interrupted the captain, very angrily, "depend
upon it that at the same time I ordered you to go aloft, and attend to
your duty, instead of talking nonsense on the quarter-deck; and
although, as you say, you