"
"But you haven't heard the end."
"Eh? Is there any more of it?"
"Certainly. The Emperor, discovering the theft, was forced to creep
naked and ashamed to the nearest castle."
"What was he ashamed of?"
"Why, of being naked."
"I see. Damme, it fits in like a puzzle!"
"But at the castle, sad to say, no one recognised the proud Jovinian.
'Avaunt!' said the porter, and threatened to have him whipped for his
impudence. This distressing experience caused the Emperor to reflect
on the vanity of human pretensions, seeing that he, of whom the world
stood in awe, had, with the loss of a few clothes, forfeited the
respect of a slave."
"I see," repeated Mr. Jope, as the narrator paused. "What became of
the beggar?"
"I knew a worse case than that, even," said Bill Adams, turning his
quid meditatively. "It happened to a Bristol man, once a shipmate of
mine; by name Zekiel Philips, and not at all inclined to stoutness
when I knew him."
"Why _should_ he be?"
"You wait. His wife kept a slop-shop at Bristol, near the foot of
Christmas Stairs--if you know where that is?"
The Major, thus challenged, shook his head.
"Ah, well; you'll have heard of O-why-hee, anyway--where they
barbecued Captain Cook? And likewise of Captain Bligh of the
_Bounty_--Breadfruit Bligh, as they call him to this day?
Well, Bligh, as you know, took the _Bounty_ out to the Islands under
Government orders to collect breadfruit, the notion being that it
could be planted in the West Indies and grown at a profit.
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