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To form these parts separately, without saw, plane, chissel, or any other iron tool, may well be thought no easy task; but the great difficulty is to join them together.
It was near twelve o'clock, the ship being put about, the decks cleared up, and grog served out preparatory to dinner, when the boatswain made his appearance before the carpenter, his anger in no way appeased. "What's that you were saying about me, Mr Ichabod Chissel, I should like to know?" he exclaimed, in an irate tone. Put that in your pipe, Mr Trundle, and smoke it."
Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated over the attic windows; one is the father, and the other the refiner of the British, stage Shakespear and Garrick. Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the chissel, one of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and the tragic muses; the value one hundred and sixty guineas.
"Well, my boy, what do you say to this?" said Mr Du Pre, producing the bone from behind his back. All eyes turned towards Bobby Smudge: the carpenter's fate hung on his decision. The young monkey felt his importance, and determined to exert it. Chissel knew it was the very sort of bone he had scraped not an hour before. Bobby took it, and, turning it round, examined it narrowly.
I advised him not; and, after talking the subject over, and turning it in every way, we came to the conclusion that, as no one else was likely to have tried to frighten old Chissel, if he had not really seen a ghost, his terror had been the result of his own evil conscience. "Yes, it is a dreadful thing to have a bad conscience," said Dicky, with a sigh.
As for the inside, I was three weeks with a mallet and chissel, clearing it in such a manner, as that it was big enough to carry twenty-six men, much bigger than any canoe I ever saw in my life, and confequentiy sufficient to transport me and all my effects to that wished-for shore I so ardently desired.
Dicky Sharpe and I happened to be near, and observing that they were both more than usually excited, we drew closer to see the fun going forward. "Well, that was a storm as fierce as ever I did see," remarked Chissel.
"Very much so, I grant," observed Mr Du Pre, taking the bone between his fingers and holding it behind his back. "Send Mr Chissel here." The carpenter soon made his appearance. "Pray, Mr Chissel, what part of the meat had you for your dinner, to-day?" asked Mr Du Pre. "The tail, sir," said the carpenter. "What became of the bone after dinner?" asked the first-lieutenant.
I could manage to imitate Bobby Smudge's voice, and I should just like to look in on old Chissel when he is taking his first snooze. I'd just mutter, `Bobby Smudge's ghost come to fetch you away, you old sinner, and his villainous conscience would do the rest."
"Suppose you had played your trick on old Chissel, and what he has seen was really an evil spirit, how very dreadful it would have been for you to have met the unnameable thing at his bedside!" said I. "Oh! don't talk of such a thing," exclaimed Dicky, shuddering. "I am sure I will never again think of carrying out such a joke as I contemplated. The idea is too frightful."
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