THE STEEL FLEA
disputed, and declared that it was a "sea-puss."
"If you like," says he, "I'll toss you into the sea, and be not afraid—it will give you back to me immediately."
And the left-handed man replied: "If that is so, then throw me."
The half-skipper took him by the slack of the breeches, and carried him to the rail.
The sailors saw this, stopped them, and reported to the Captain, and he ordered them both to be locked up downstairs, and that they should be given rum and liquor and cold food, so that they might eat and drink and carry out their wager; but hot studing with fire[1] was not to be given to them because it might set fire to the spirits inside them.
And thus they were brought, in confinement, to Petrograd, and neither had
- ↑ "Studen" means "cold." The gunsmith converts it into hot plum-pudding with blazing brandy.
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