Page 9 - Jack's victory and other stories about dogs

" olcl salt;” a stone with which they scour the

decks is culled a "holy-stone,” because when they

use it they have to go on their knees; and a holy-
stone they call a "sailor’s prayer-book,” because

the deck is usually scoured 011 Sunday mornings.

The captain of a skip is the “ old in an;" the ship’s

cook, the “doctor;1* the doctor himself is “ pills”
01 “sawbones.” An awkward fellow is a “ lubber;"

a carpenter “chips;” a cooper “ bungs;” and

“Jack ” may be anything- from a man to a monkey
— provided always that it is something that they

like, Hence the name is never given to a soldier,

or a cook, or a steward. By soldiers they mean
the marines on board of a man-of-war. who act

as a guard and police. They do not like them

because they carry muskets, and arc excused from

going aloft to make or take in sail. They say,
if first a sailor, then a dog, then a soldier.” This

is their order of merit.

Jack may have been the English for Soak,

which is short for Oosisoak. But no matter for
that; they would not have made it Jack if they

had not liked the dog. Thus Jack in this in­