"Not a midshipman!" he cried, running together all three syllables
of the word. "You bin to school, I s'pose?"
"Yes, indeed," I said, "at Shrewsbury."
"Now hark to me," he cries, again interrupting me. "I never went to
no school, and I hain't got no philosophies nor any other useless
cargoes in my hold, nor Mr. Benbow neither; and if ever you say a
word against Mr. Benbow you'll wish you wasn't Humphrey, nor Bold,
'cos you'll wish as how you'd never bin born. I bid you good
mornin'."
I left him, in a fine heat of resentment, thinking that a few years
at Shrewsbury school might have improved both his language and his
manners. But when I came to know him better, and to understand the
motive of his rough address to me, I forgave the bluff seaman
heartily. He was a keen partisan in the feud that then divided the
navy, the one faction being for Benbow, the other against him; and
being ignorant of my antecedents, he supposed from my not having
been a midshipman that I was one of the fine gentlemen who were
foisted on the King's service by their high connections and
despised plain seamen of the Benbow school. I might have undeceived
him very soon had I so pleased, but I thought it best to win his
approval by the manner in which I performed my duties, leaving the
other matter to time. As it happened, my fidelity to Mr. Benbow was
shown very clearly before long.
'Twould be a dull story to relate the trivial incidents of my first
year of service in the navy.
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