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Updated: May 6, 2025
"I do think myself, sir," replied Jack, with great modesty, "that I am not yet quite perfect." "Well, then, Mr Jolliffe will teach you; he is the most competent in this ship: the sooner you ask him the better, and if you learn it as fast as you have Spanish, it will not give you much trouble."
As he expected, he found him under the big ilex on his back, with his after-breakfast pipe, no longer alight, between his lips. 'Mr. Jolliffe; I say, Mr. Jolliffe, began Clarence. Lambert Jolliffe sat up, and fixed his glass in one drowsy eye. 'Hullo, Sir Garnet I beg your pardon, Lord Wolseley, I mean. You ought to hear what they're saying at the War Office, I can tell you!
Jack, on the other hand, dared not say a word to Jolliffe on the subject: indeed, there was no one in the ship to whom he could confide but Gascoigne: he therefore went to him, and although Gascoigne thought it was excessively infra dig of Jack to meet even the boatswain, as the challenge had been given there was no retracting: he therefore consented, like all midshipmen, anticipating fun, and quite thoughtless of the consequences.
Dr Jolliffe, who saw that he was absorbed in reflection, thought that he was dwelling upon the serious nature of the position, in which he found himself, and would have been amused if he could have read the real subject of his meditations. But he could not do that, so he read the proof-sheets of his new treatise on the digamma.
Mr Smallsole was undecided; the gun fired was not a heavy one, and so Mr Jolliffe remarked; the men, as usual, anxious for the attack, asserted the same, and Mr Smallsole, afraid of retreating from the enemy and being afterwards despised by the ship's company, ordered the boats to weigh their grapnels. "Stop a moment, my lads," said Jack to his men, "I've got a bite."
The old room was a good scene for such a narrative, with the oak-wainscoting, quaint, and clumsy furniture, the heavy beams that crossed its ceiling, and the tall four-post bed, with dark curtains, within which you might imagine what shadows you please. Mrs. Jolliffe cleared her voice, rolled her eyes slowly round, and began her tale in these words:
In two days they arrived at Gibraltar Mr Sawbridge rejoined the ship so did Mr Jolliffe they remained there a fortnight, during which Jack was permitted to be continually on shore Mr Asper accompanied him, and Jack drew a heavy bill to prove to his father that he was still alive.
Whereupon Jack and the gunner argued the point, until it was agreed to refer the case to Mr Jolliffe, who asserted, with a smile, "That those lines were parallels, and not parallels." As both were right, both were satisfied. It was fortunate that Jack would argue in this instance: had he believed all the confused assertions of the gunner, he would have been as puzzled as the gunner himself.
The unfortunate squire had of course been called on to arbitrate, and having postponed his decision by every contrivance possible to him, had at last been driven by Jolliffe to declare that Hopkins should take nothing that was not assigned to him. Hopkins, when the decision was made known to him by his master, bit his old lips, and turned round upon his old heel, speechless.
'It is not enough, said she. 'My boys will have to live by steering the ships that the Lesters own; and I was once above her! Jolliffe was not an argumentative man, and he only murmured that he thought he would make another voyage. He meditated for several days, and coming home from the quay one afternoon said suddenly: 'I could do it for 'ee, dear, in one more trip, for certain, if if
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