Will you explain to me why you made use of such language ?" Now our hero had no proofs against the man; he had nothing to offer in extenuation, until he recollected, all at once, the reason assigned by the captain for the language used by Mr Sawbridge.

Jack had the wit to perceive that it would hit home, so he replied, very quietly and respectfully: "If you please, Captain Wilson, that was all zeal." "Zeal, Mr Easy?
I think it but a bad excuse.

But pray, then, why did you kick the man down the hatchway ?--you must have known that that was contrary to the rules of the service." "Yes, sir," replied Jack, demurely; "but that was all zeal, too." "Then allow me to say," replied Captain Wilson, biting his lips, "that I think that your zeal has in this instance been very much misplaced, and I trust you will not show so much again." "And yet, sir," replied Jack, aware that he was giving the captain a hard hit, and therefore looked proportionally humble, "we should do nothing in the service without it--and I trust one day, as you told me, to become a very zealous officer." "I trust so, too, Mr Easy," replied the captain.

"There, you may go now, and let me hear no more of kicking people down the hatchway.

That sort of zeal is misplaced." "More than my foot was, at all events," muttered Jack, as he walked off.
Captain Wilson, as soon as our hero disappeared, laughed heartily, and told Mr Sawbridge, "he had ascribed his language to our hero as all zeal.