8.  I laughed outright.  I enjoyed the turtle a thousand times more than I should have done if I had eaten the whole of it.  But I was forced to restrain my mirth, for the next moment the steward ran upon deck, followed by the captain, in a furious rage, threatening if he caught him to throw him overboard.  Not a spoonful of the soup had been left in the coppers, for the steward had taken it all away at once to keep it warm.  In about an hour afterwards the passengers came upon deck, looking more sober than I had seen them since we left Liverpool.  They had dined upon cold ham.

DEFINTIONS.—­1.  Re-served’, kept back, retained. 2.  Lick’er. ish, eager or greedy to swallow.  Aft, toward the stern of a vessel.  Pro-spec’tive, relating to the future.  Force’meat, meat chopped fine and highly seasoned.  Unc’tu-ous, fat. 5.  Glaz’ing, glass or glass-like substance.  Bin’na-cle, a box containing the compass of a ship. 6.  Gal’ley, the kitchen of a ship. 7.  Tu-reen’, a large deep vessel for holding soup.  Gang’way, a passageway.  Lee, pertaining to the side opposite that against which the wind blows.  Scup’pers, channels cut through the side of a ship for carrying off water from the deck.  Cop’pers, large copper boilers.

Note.—­6.  Four bells; i.e., two o’clock.

LXXXV.  THE BEST KIND OF REVENGE.

1.  Some years ago a warehouseman in Manchester, England, published a scurrilous pamphlet, in which he endeavored to hold up the house of Grant Brothers to ridicule.  William Grant remarked upon the occurrence that the man would live to repent of what he had done; and this was conveyed by some talebearer to the libeler, who said, “Oh, I suppose he thinks I shall some time or other be in his debt; but I will take good care of that.”  It happens, however, that a man in business can not always choose who shall be his creditors.  The pamphleteer became a bankrupt, and the brothers held an acceptance of his which had been indorsed to them by the drawer, who had also become a bankrupt.

2.  The wantonly libeled men had thus become creditors of the libeler!  They now had it in their power to make him repent of his audacity.  He could not obtain his certificate without their signature, and without it he could not enter into business again.  He had obtained the number of signatures required by the bankrupt law except one.  It seemed folly to hope that the firm of “the brothers” would supply the deficiency.  What! they who had cruelly been made the laughingstock of the public, forget the wrong and favor the wrongdoer?  He despaired.  But the claims of a wife and children forced him at last to make the application.  Humbled by misery, he presented himself at the countinghouse of the wronged.