xclaimed with vehemence.
"Here was I, with a fine craft I could almost call my own, and with
every chance of providing for my family, and now I'm worse than a
beggar--a prisoner, and forced to go I don't know where."

"You shouldn't have broken the blockade, and your friends shouldn't have
rebelled and broken the laws," said I.

"Laws!" he exclaimed with disdain, "they were bad laws, and it went
against the grain of every honest man to observe them."

"I don't know anything about that," I replied; "in my profession all we
have to do is to obey without asking questions, and I just fancy that
your people will very soon have to do the same, whether they like it or
not."

"Will they, forsooth?" he exclaimed, striking his fist on the table.
"The time has passed for that. I'll tell you what, sir, they'll fight
it out till every drop of honest blood is spilt in the country. It was
the supercilious, boasting airs of your lords and aristocrats who came
out among the military looking down upon all the first gentlemen in the
land as provincials and colonists, as they called them in contempt,
which was the real cause of the revolt. They made enemies wherever they
went, with their follies and pride and haughty words. They and their
government at home seemed to forget that we were Britons like
themselves, with British hearts, ay, and with truer loyalty than they
had for the king and the old country. What would you say, sir, if you
were insulted as we have been?"

"I certainly do not like being bullied by anyone," said I.

"No more do we colonists, sir," answered the poor skipper. "My father,
sir, came over from the old country; misfortunes compelled him to quit
it, but he loved it as much as ever, and brought up me, his son, to love
it also; and so I should to this day, had I, and those who had made
America their own, been fairly treated--not looked upon as children to
be played with, or slaves to be bullied and despised. Now, sir," he
continued, standing up and placing one hand on the table, while he
extended the other, "I tell you that there are not bitterer enemies to
the old country than your government have made me and many like me."

"I am very sorry for you," I said, seeing the justice of his remarks,
"but you see I cannot help it, so just sit down and mix yourself another
tumbler of grog; we can but make the best of circumstances."

"I don't want your pity, or that of any of the enemies of America," he
answere