flushed, laughing face close to his, he forgot everything else, and
kissed her.

"Oh!" said Hetty indignantly.

"Will you give it to me now?" said the mate, trembling at his boldness.

"Take it," said she. She leaned across the table, and, as the mate
advanced, dabbed viciously at him with the spoon. Then she suddenly
dropped both articles on the table and moved away, as the mate, startled
by a footstep at the door, turned a flushed visage, ornamented with
three streaks of mustard, on to the dumbfounded skipper.

"Sakes alive!" said that astonished mariner, as soon as he could speak;
"if he ain't a-mustarding his own face now--I never 'card of such a thing
in all my life. Don't go near 'im, Hetty. Jack!"

"Well," said the mate, wiping his smarting face with his handkerchief.

"You've never been took like this before?" queried the skipper
anxiously.

"O'course not," said the mortified mate.

"Don't you say o'course not to me," said the other warmly, "after
behaving like this. A straight weskit's what you want. I'll go an' see
old Ben about it. He's got an uncle in a 'sylum. You come up too, my
girl."

He went in search of Ben, oblivious of the fact that his daughter,