shear, gangways, and hatchways, and waterways, quarter-deck, and
forecastle, ay, and flush-deck?—tell me that, man, if you can; where
away did’ee ever fall in with a full-rigged, regular-built, necked
vessel?”

The whole company were a good deal astounded with this overwhelming
question, and even Richard afterward remarked that it “was a thousand
pities that Benjamin could not read, or he must have made a valuable
officer to the British marine. It is no wonder that they overcame the
French so easily on the water, when even the lowest sailor so well
understood the different parts of a vessel.” But Billy Kirby was a
fearless wight, and had great jealousy of foreign dictation; he had
risen on his feet, and turned his back to the fire, during the voluble
delivery of this interrogatory; and when the steward ended, contrary
to all expectation, he gave the following spirited reply:

“Where! why, on the North River, and maybe on Champlain. There’s
sloops on the river, boy, that would give a hard time on’t to the
stoutest vessel King George owns. They carry masts of ninety feet in
the clear of good solid pine, for I’ve been at the chopping of many a
one in Varmount State. I wish I was captain in one of them, and you
was in that Board-dish that you talk so much about, and we’d soon see
what good Yankee stuff is made on, and whether a Varmounter’s hide
ain’t as thick as an Englishman’s.”
The echoes from the opposite hills, which were more than half a mile
from the fishing point, sent back the discordant laugh that Benjamin
gave forth at this challenge; and the woods that covered their sides
seemed, by the noise that issued from their shades, to be full of
mocking demons.