when he sobered, he had quite forgotten where the leg was, and how
he broke it; he therefore got Kelson to splice the stump with the
butt-end of a mop; but in the hurry it had been left three inches too
long, so that he had to jerk himself up to the top of his peg at every
step. The doctor, glad to breathe the fresh air after the horrible
work he had gone through, was leaning over the side, speaking to
Kelson. When I fell, he turned round and drew Cookee's fire on
himself. "Doctor, you have not prescribed for me yet."--"No, Caboose,
I have not; what is wrong?"--"Wrong, sir! why, I have lost my leg, and
the captain's clerk says I am not in the return!--Look here, sir, had
doctor Kelson not coopered me, where should I have been?--Why, doctor,
had I been looked after, amputation might have been unnecessary; a
_fish_ might have done, whereas I have had to be _spliced_." He was
here cut short by the voice of his mate, who had gone forward to slay
a pig for the gunroom mess. "Oh, Lad, oh!--Massa Caboose!--Dem dam
Yankee! De Purser killed, massa!--Dem shoot him troo de head!--Oh,
Oh, Lad!" Captain Deadeye had come on deck. "You, Johncrow, what _is_
wrong with you?"--"Why, de Purser killed, captain, dat all."--"Purser
killed?--Doctor, is Saveall hurt?" Treenail could stand it no longer.
"No, sir, no; it is one of the gunroom pigs that we shipped at
Halifax, three cruises ago; I am sure I don't know how he survived
one, but the seamen took a fancy to him, and nicknamed him the Purser.
You know, sir, they make pets of any thing, and every thing, at a
pinch!"

Here Johncrow drew the carcass from the hog-pen, and sure enough a
shot had cut the poor Purser's head nearly off. Blackee looked at him
with a most whimsical expression; they say no one can fathom a negro's
affection for a pig. "Poor Purser! de people call him Purser, sir,
because him knowing chap; him cabbage all de grub, slush, and stuff in