How I Came Aboard The Happy Despatch And Of My Sufferings There

I awoke gasping to the shock of cold water and was dimly aware of divers people crowding about me.

"'Tis a fine, bull-bodied boy, Job, all brawn and beef--witness your eye, Lord love me!" exclaimed a jovial voice, "Aha, Job, a lusty lad--heave t'other bucket over him!" There came another torrent of water, whereupon I strove to sit up, but finding this vain by reason of strict bonds, I cursed them all and sundry instead.

"A sturdy soul, Job, and of a comfortable conversation!" quoth the voice. "Moreover a man o' mark, as witnesseth your peeper."

"Rot him!" growled the man Job, a beastly-seeming fellow, very slovenly and foul of person, who glared down at me out of one eye, the other being so bruised and swollen as to serve him no whit.

"He should be overside wi' his guts full o' shot for this same heye of mine if 'twas my say--"

"But then it ain't your say, Job, nor yet Belvedere's--'tis hern, Job--hern--Cap'n Jo's. 'He's to be took care of,' says she, 'treated kind and gentle,' says she. And, mark me, here's Belvedere's nose out o' joint, d'ye see? And, talkin' o' noses, there's your eye, Job; sink me but he wiped your eye for you, my--"

"Plague and perish him!" snarled Job, kicking me viciously. "Burn him, 'tis keelhaul 'im I would first and then give 'im to Pompey to carve up what remained--"