And so, with the summer coming on, as it is now--though a
precious long time about it--and the smell of the meat, and the thoughts
of the grog, and the feeling of being at home again, what did I do but
fall as fast asleep as the captain of the watch in a heavy gale of wind!
My back was to the light, so far as there was any, and to make sure of
the top of my head, I fetched down my hat--the soft-edged one, the same
as you see me wear on fine Sundays.
"Well, I may have gone on in that way for an hour, not snoring, as Mrs.
Stubbard calls it, but breathing to myself a little in my sleep, when I
seemed to hear somebody calling me, not properly, but as people do in
a dream--'Stoobar--Stoobar--Stoobar,' was the sound in my ears, like my
conscience hauling me over the coals in bad English. This made me wake
up, for I always have it out with that part of me when it mutinies; but
I did not move more than to feel for my glass. And then I perceived that
it was nothing more or less than a pair of Frenchmen talking about me
in the berth next to mine, within the length of a marlin-spike from my
blessed surviving ear.
"Some wiseacre says that listeners never hear good of themselves, and
upon my word he was right enough this time, so far as I made out. The
French language is beyond me, so far as speaking goes, for I never can
lay hold of the word I want; but I can make out most of what those queer
people say, from being a prisoner among them once, and twice in command
of a prize crew over them.
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