CHAPTER XII.
_An Important Commission_ Meanwhile, interesting conversations were going on forward, of which this is a sample.
"I 'm blest if I like this orderin' business," said one grizzled seaman; "they said he was h--l on orders, but what I shipped for was prize money and a chance to get a lick at them bloody Britishers; not for to clean brass work, an' scrape spars, an' flemish down, an' holy-stone decks, which he won't let us spit terbacker on.

I don't call this no fighting fur liberty, not by a durn sight." "Shut up, Bill," replied another; "you've got to obey orders.

This yere ain't no old tea wagon, no fishing-boat, you old scowbanker, it's a wessel-o'-war; and may I never see Nantucket again if the old man," using a merchantman's expression, "ain't goin' to be captain of the old hooker while he's in it.

And if you call this hard work and growl at this kind o' dissyplin'-- well, all I got ter say, you'd oughter been on the old Radnor.

Curse the British devils!" he cried, grinding his heel in the deck.