You've pounded it in pretty hard, but I cal'late I'd ought to have had it done to me.

I'm a fool--an OLD fool, just as I said a while back--and nothin' nor NOBODY ought to have made me forget it.

For a minute or so I--but there! don't you fret.
That young woman shan't risk her job nor her reputation on account of me--nor of Bos'n, either.

I'll see to that.

And see here," he added fiercely, "I can't stop women's tongues, even when they're as bad as some of the tongues in this town, BUT if you hear a MAN say one word against Phoebe Dawes, only one word, you tell me his name.