"I didn't mean to come in in that way," said the astonished Tucker. "I
can't help being big."
"I don't want him here," said her mistress; "what do you think I want
him for?"
"You hear that?" said Susan, pointing to the door; "now go. I don't want
people to say that you come into this kitchen after me."
"I'm here by the cap'n's orders," said Tucker faintly. "I don't want to
be here--far from it. As for people saying that I come here after you,
them as knows me would laugh at the idea."
"If I had my way," said Susan, in a hard rasping voice, "I'd box your
ears for you. That's what I'd do to you, and you can go and tell the
cap'n I said so. Spy!"
This was the first verse of the first watch, and there were many verses.
To add to his discomfort he was confined to the house, as his charge
manifested no desire to go outside, and as neither she nor her aunt
cared about the trouble of bringing him to a fit and proper state of
subjection, the task became a labour of love for the energetic Susan. In
spite of everything, however, he stuck to his guns, and the indignant
Chrissie, who was in almost hourly communication with Metcalfe through
the medium of her faithful handmaiden, was rapidly becoming desperate.
On the fourth day, time getting short, Chrissie went on a new tack with
her keeper, and Susan, sorely against her will, had to follow suit.
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