and Portobello. She was at the
fishing up of the wrecked plate ships. It's there she learned 'Pieces of
eight,' and little wonder; three hundred and fifty thousand of 'em,
Hawkins! She was at the boarding of the Viceroy of the Indies out of Goa,
she was; and to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you
smelt powder--didn't you, cap'n?"

"Stand by to go about," the parrot would scream.

"Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is," the cook would say, and give her
sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars and swear
straight on, passing belief for wickedness. "There," John would add, "you
can't touch pitch and not be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old innocent
bird o' mine swearing blue fire, and none the wiser, you may lay to that.
She would swear the same, in a manner of speaking, before chaplain." And
John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had, that made me
think he was the best of men.

In the meantime the squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty
distant terms with one another. The squire made no bones about the
matter; he despised the captain. The captain, on his part, never spoke
but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not a
word wasted. He owned, when driven into a corner, that he seemed to have
been wrong about the crew, that some of them were as brisk as he wanted
to see, and all had behaved fairly well. As for the ship, he had taken a
downright fancy to her. "She'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man
has a right to expect of his own married wife, sir. But," he would add,
"all I say is we're not home again, and I don't like the cruise."

The squire, at this, would turn away and march up and down the deck, chin
in air.

"A trifle more of that man," he would say, "and I should explode."

We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the
_Hispaniola_. Every man on board seemed well content, and they must have
been hard to please if they had been otherwise; for it is my belief that
there was never a ship's company so spoiled since Noah put to sea. Double
grog was going on the least excuse; there was duff on odd days, as, for
instance, if the squire heard it was any man's birthday, and always a
barrel of apples standing broached in the waist, for any one to help
himself that had a fancy.

"Never knew good come of it yet," the captain said to Dr. Livesey. "Spoil
foc's'le hands, make devils. That's my belief."

But good di