Tales of the Sea
Book Excerpt
"I'll catch you, youngster, the next time. Mark me, that I will," he shouted out to me one day, when more than usually angry.
"Wait till the next time comes, mate," I sang out, and laughed more heartily than before.
The men sympathised with me, especially Dirty Dick. His shoulders, till I came on board, had been accustomed to suffer most from the mate's ill temper. Now and then old Growl, greatly to his delight, caught me unawares; but, suffering as I did from his blows, I never let him see that I cared for them, and used to laugh just as heartily as when I had escaped from him. On this, however, he would grin sardonically, and observe, "You may laugh as you like, young master, I know what a rope's end tastes like; it's a precious deal bitterer than yo