Page:The Dark Frigate (Hawes).djvu/163

“'Tis a swinish thought,’ the Old One retorted; but he smiled when he said it, so that they took no offense, for of such grumbling he had no fear. He was set to catch a bird of quite another feather.

Then old Jacob rose and they were silent to hear him. “Let us make an end of talk,” said he slowly. "We are on our way south and to stop or turn aside would be nothing but foolishness.” And with that, although they had expected him to say more, he turned away.

Then, of a sudden, ‘‘Come, Will,” the Old One cried, singling out his man from all the rest, ‘‘what say you?”

If Will Canty’s face changed at all, it was a whit the paler as he met the Old One’s eyes. ‘‘I say," he replied, ‘‘that since we have fish on board, we are sure of fish and would do well to eat fish ere we lose it.”

“There is sooth in thy words,”’ quoth the Old One, and he smiled in friendly wise. (But despite his smile, he liked the words little, as any shrewd man might have known by his eyes, and Will Canty was no fool.) ‘‘Come, cook, and boil us a great kettle of fish.”

The rumble of low voices changed to laughter and the cook boldly cried, ‘‘Yea, yea, master!”

“For our much voyaging and many pains,” cried the men, as they went about their work, ‘‘we have got a kettle of fish.” And they laughed mightily, for though it was the very thing that before had made them grumble, now they saw it as a droll affair and made of it many jests, of which a few were good and more bad, after the manner of jests.

As for the cook, he called his mate and bade him break out a drum of fish and set a kettle to boil, and cuffed him this way and that, till the poor fellow’s ears were swollen.