Читать книгу Wrecked on Spider Island; Or, How Ned Rogers Found the Treasure онлайн

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“Got knocked ’round pretty lively for a few minutes, eh?” the mate said in a cheery tone as he seated himself on a chest by the side of Ned’s bunk.

“Indeed I did, an’ all for nothin’. I was doin’ the best I knew when he begun, an’ then how could I help tumblin’ the cook over when the captain fired me at him?”

“You don’t want to bother your head about that, my lad. The least said in such cases is the soonest mended. A boy at sea must learn to hold his tongue.”

“Even when he’s gettin’ a floggin’ he don’t deserve?”

“Of course; that’s the very time when it’s most dangerous to talk. You’ll soon get used to the captain’s ways.”

“It’ll take a mighty long while for me to get used to bein’ fired from one end of the cabin to the other, an’ then on deck.”

“Wait three weeks, an’ see what you say about it. I went to sea as boy with a master who was as liberal with his blows as Captain Bragg; but I got in the habit of dodgin’ ’em before we’d been outside three days, an’ after that it was fairly smooth sailin’, except when he caught me unawares.”