"but the one I'm going
to tell you about ought never to have been trusted out without 'is ma.
A good many o' my skippers had fads, but this one was the worst I ever
sailed under.

"It's some few years ago now; I'd shipped on his bark, the John
Elliott, as slow-going an old tub as ever I was aboard of, when I
wasn't in quite a fit an' proper state to know what I was doing, an' I
hadn't been in her two days afore I found out his 'obby through
overhearing a few remarks made by the second mate, who came up from
dinner in a hurry to make 'em. 'I don't mind saws an' knives hung
round the cabin,' he ses to the fust mate, 'but when a chap has a 'uman
'and alongside 'is plate, studying it while folks is at their food,
it's more than a Christian man can stand."

"'That's nothing,' ses the fust mate, who had sailed with the bark
afore. 'He's half crazy on doctoring. We nearly had a mutiny aboard
once owing to his wanting to hold a post mortem on a man what fell from
the mast-head. Wanted to see what the poor feller died of.'

"'I call it unwholesome,' ses the second mate very savage. 'He offered
me a pill at breakfast the size of a small marble; quite put me off my
feed, it did.'

"Of course, the skipper's fad soon got known for'ard. But I didn't
think much about it, till one day I seed old Dan'l Dennis sitting on a
locker reading. Every now and then he'd shut the book, an' look up,
closing 'is eyes, an' moving his lips like a hen drinking, an' then
look down at the book again.

"Why, Dan,' I ses, 'what's up? you ain't larning lessons at your time
o' life?"

"'Yes, I am,' ses Dan very soft. 'You might hear me say it, it's this
one about heart disease.'

"He hands over the book, which was stuck full o' all kinds o' diseases,
and winks at me 'ard.

"'Picked it up on a book-stall,' he ses; then he shut 'is eyes an' said
his piece wonderful. It made me quite queer to listen to 'im. That's
how I feel,' ses he, when he'd finished. 'Just strength enough to get
to bed. Lend a hand, Bill, an' go an' fetch the doctor.'

"Then I see his little game, but I wasn't going to run any risks, so I
just mentioned, permiscous like, to the cook as old Dan seemed rather
queer, an' went back an' tried to borrer the book, being always fond of
reading. Old Dan pretended he was too ill to hear what I was saying,
an' afore I could take it away from him, the skipper comes hurrying
down with a bag in his 'and.

"'What's the matter,