“The other side!” exclaimed the Oddity, involuntarily turning towards England. “Poo! poo! nonsense, man,—I only came to look at your accommodations. I’m not going across with you—I’m not, upon my word!”
“I must beg your pardon, Sir;” said the Captain, quite
[Pg 434]
 solemnly. “But it is my firm opinion that you are ‘going across.’”
“Poo, poo! all gammon.—I till you I am going back to Dublin.”
“Upon my soul, then,” said the Skipper, rather briskly, “you must swim back like a grampus, or borrow a pair of wings from the gulls.”
The man at the helm grinned his broadest at what he thought a good joke of his officer’s—while the Original turned sharply round, parodied a hyena’s laugh at the fellow, and then returned to the charge.
“Come, come, Skipper—it’s quite as far out as I care for—if you want to treat me to a sail!”
“Treat you to a sail!” roared the indignant officer. “Zounds! Sir, I’m in earnest—as much in earnest as ever I was in my life.”
“So much the better,” answered the Original. “I’m not joking myself, and I have no right to be joked upon.”
“Joke or no joke,&r............