190 The Island of

the sheep, which instantly began to browse
his hair off, while he screamed loudly.

“Captain!” said the doctor angrily, ‘it is
bad taste to eat your passengers.”

The Captain turned savagely upon him,
and rolled off a long list of fearful expres-
sions, of which “My Aunt!” and “Golly!”
were among the mildest.

There was an indescribable peculiarity
about the Captain which caused me to detest
him.
The Captain came back, still in a rage.
‘Passenger you call him!” he said; “TI call
him a vegetable—a lunatic vegetable! I
can’t stand him—my men can’t stand him.
He gets his roots all round the tackle
so that they can’t work it! Yesterday they
turned round the screw, and stopped the ship.
I won’t have it, I tell you! He scatters seeds
all over the deck. It was a clean deck before .
he came aboard—look at it now! My Aunt!”

I looked forward at the forecastle: the
whole deck was hidden by a luxuriant crop
of mingled wheat, potatoes, dandelions,
poppies, and other plants.