H.M.S. "PINAFORE"
their heads simultaneously, like so many china mandarins in a tea-shop.
"No, no," said Dick Deadeye, "Captains' daughters don't marry common sailors."
Now this was a very sensible remark, but coming from ugly Dick Deadeye it was considered to be in the worst possible taste. All the sailors muttered, "Shame, shame!"
"Dick Deadeye," said Bobstay, "those sentiments of yours are a disgrace to our common nature."
Dick shrugged his left eyebrow. He would have shrugged his shoulders if he could, but they wouldn't work that way; so, always anxious to please, he did the best he could with his left eyebrow, but even that didn't succeed in conciliating his messmates.
"It's very strange," said Ralph, "that the daughter of a man who hails from the quarter deck may not love another who lays out on the fore-yard arm. For a man is but a man, whether he hoists his flag at the main-truck, or his slacks on the main deck."
This speech of Ralph's calls for a little explanation, for he expressed himself in terms which an ordinary landsman would not understand. The quarter deck is the part of the ship reserved for officers, and the fore-yard arm is a horizontal spar
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