But meantime, and before he sighted land, this
unfortunate crew kept puttin' on flesh--and the cause of it hid from
them all the time--till there wasn't on the ship a pair of
smallclothes but had refused duty. Whereby, coming to the island in
question, they went ashore, every man Jack in loin-cloths cut out o'
the stun-s'le, and the rest of 'em as bare as the back of my hand.
Whereby their appearance excited the natives to such a degree, being
superstitious, they was set upon and eaten to a man. The moral
bein'," concluded Mr. Adams, "that a man lay be brought low by bein'
puffed up."
"Ay," said Mr. Jope after a pause. "I never had no great
acquaintance with poetry, but I bought a pocket-handkercher once for
tuppence with a verse on it:"
"'Ri fal de ral diddle, ri fal de ral dee,
What ups and downs in the world there be!'
"And I don't believe you could use a truer text for the purpose, no
matter what you paid."
The Major sighed. He was a high-spirited man, as the reader knows,
and I believe that, but for one cruel memory, he might have learnt
even to taste some humour in his situation. Thanks to Mr. Jope and
Mr. Adams, who had taken a genuine fancy to him, he found life on
board the _Vesuvius_ cheerful if not comfortable. The fare was
Spartan, indeed, but, for a short holiday, tolerable. The prospect
of seeing some real fighting excited him pleasurably, for he was no
coward.
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