"Tell me, and I will believe it too!"
"He used to tell of a Malay pirate," said the farmer, "that he fit and
licked somewhere off in the South Seas,--when he sailed the 'Lively
Polly,' that was. She was a clipper, Father always said; an' he run
aboard the black fellers, and smashed their schooner, an' throwed their
guns overboard, an' demoralized 'em ginerally. They took to their boats
an' paddled off, what was left of 'em, an' he an' his crew sarched the
schooner, an' found a woman locked up in the cabin,--an Injin princess,
father said she was,--an' they holdin' her for ransom. Wal, Father found
out somehow whar she come from,--Javy, or Mochy, or some o' them places
out o' the spice-box,--an' he took her home, an' hunted up her parents
an' guardeens, an' handed her over safe an' sound. They--the
guardeens--was gret people whar they lived, an' they wanted to give
Father a pot o' money; but he said he warn't that kind. 'I'm a Yankee
skipper!' says he. ''Twas as good as a meal o' vittles to me to smash
that black feller!' says he. '_I_ don't want no pay for it. An' as for
the lady, 'twas a pleasure to obleege her,' he says; 'an' I'd do it agin
_any_ day in the week, _'xcept_ Sunday, when I don't fight, ez a rewl,
when I kin help it.' Then the princess, she tried to kiss his hand; but
Father said he guessed that warn't quite proper, an' the guardeens
seemed to think so too. So then she took a ruby necklace off her neck
(she was all done up in shawls, Father said, an' silk, an' gold chains,
an' fur an' things, so 's 't he couldn' see nothin' but her eyes; but
they was better wuth seein' than any other woman's hull face that ever
_he_ see), and gave it to him, an' made signs that he _must_ keep that,
anyhow.
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