The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-10-16

-
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 wicked
ness. ''There." John would add. you
can't touch pitch and not be mucked,
lad. Here's this poor old innocent
bird OF mine swearing blue fire, and
none the wiser, you may lay to that.
She would swear the same, In manner
OF speaking. before the 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 Capt.
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 word wasted. He
owned, when driven into 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
She'll lie a point nearer the wind than,
man has right to expect Of his own
married wife, sir. But" he would add,
'all say is. we're not home again, and
] don't like the cruise"
The squire. at this, would turn away
and march up and down the deck, chin
in air.
az trile more of that man." he
would say, land l should explode"
We had some heavy weather which
only proved the qualities of the
"llispanola." 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 there was never ships
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 mans birthday; and
always a barrel of apples standing
hroachcd in the waist, for anyone to
help himself that had Il fancy.
"Ncvcr knew good to come of IT yet"
the captain said to DR.. Livesey. Spoil
belief"
But good did come of the apple BAR
rel. ms you shall hear; for if it had not
been for that. we should have had no
note of warming and might all have
persisted by the hand of trenchery.
This is how il came about:
We had run up the trades to get tho
wind Of the island we were ufter-I am
not allowed to be more plain--and now
we were running down for it with
bright lookout day and night. 1t was
about the last day of our outward voy-
age, by the largest computation; some
time that night, or, at latest, before
noon of the morrow we should sight
the Treasure island We were hending
S. S. W.. and had II steady breeze
nbram and n quiet sea. The ''1Iispan,
lola" rolled steadily, dipping her bow
spirit now nml then with Whit of
spray. All was drawing allow and aloft;
every one was in the brnvest spirits.
because we were now so near an end
of the first part of our adventure.
Now, just after SHUTDOWN. when all
my work was over, and l was on my
"nN w iiN iVitu, ~ pNCulICi " llO
that | should like an apple. | ran on
deck. The watch was I'LL forward look
ing out for the island. The man at the
helm was whitening the luff Of the
sail, and whistlinS away gently to HIM
self; and that was the only sound cx-
ccpting the swish of the SEA against the
bows and around the sides of the ship.
In got bodily into the apple barrel,
and found there was scarce an apple
left; but, sitting down there in tho
dark. what with the sound of the wa
tiers and the rocking movement of the
ship. l had either fallen asleep, or was
on the point Of doing so, when heavy
man sat down with rather a clash close
by. The barrel shook us he leaned his
shoulders against it. and l was just
about to jump up when the man began
to speak. II was Sivcrs voice, und
before l had heard II dozen words,
would not have shown myself for all
the world. but lay there, trembling and
listening, in the extreme of fear md
curiosity; for from these dozen words
] understood that the lives of all the
honest men aboard depended upon mo
alone.