"That's what you'll learn to do, my joker, before you've been two cruises to sea." In the meantime the gentleman in the plaid cloak, who was seated by me, smoked his cigar without saying a word.

I commenced a conversation with him relative to my profession, and asked him whether it was not very difficult to learn.

"Larn," cried the sailor, interrupting us, "no; it may be difficult for such chaps as me before the mast to larn; but you, I presume, is a reefer, and they an't got much to larn, 'cause why, they pipe-clays their weekly accounts, and walks up and down with their hands in their pockets.

You must larn to chaw baccy, drink grog, and call the cat a beggar, and then you knows all a midshipman's expected to know nowadays.

Ar'n't I right, sir ?" said the sailor, appealing to the gentleman in a plaid cloak.