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THE PIRATE CITY.

for iver, an' I got tired o' lookin' out for that British fleet that niver comes, so I says to mesilf wan fine evenin', 'Go out, Ted me boy, an' have a swim in the say—it'll do 'ee good, and there's not much chance of any wan troublin' ye here.' No sooner said than done. Out I wint round beyont the Pint Pescade, an' off wid me close an' into the say. Och! but it was plisint! Well, just as I was coming out, who should I see on the rocks above me but a big thief of an Arab? I knew at wance that if I was to putt on me close he'd guess, maybe, who I was, so I came out o' the wather an' ran straight at him naked—meanin' to frighten him away like. An' sure enough he tuk to his heels like a Munster pig. I don't know how it is, but I have always had a strong turn for huntin'. From the time whin I was a small gosoon runnin' after the pigs an' cats, I've bin apt to give chase to anything that runned away from me, an' to forgit myself. So it was now After the Arab I wint, neck an crop, an' away he wint like the wind, flingin' off his burnous as he ran; but I was light, bein' naked, d'ye see, an' soon overhauled him. For a starn-chase it was the shortest I remember. When I came up wid him I made a grab at his head, an his hake—is that what ye calls it?—comed away in me hand, leaving his shaved head open to view, wid the tuft o' hair on the top of it.