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Black Eyes, the
pirate, lived on a pirate ship. A flag, the Jolly Bodger hung from a mast
and waved back and forth when the wind blew. “Ahoy and yo ho ho!” Black
Eyes said. A lot of other pirates lived on the ship with him and they did
not like Black Eyes. He was not a nice person. He didn’t let them eat much
food and when they did eat, all that was left was stale bread and apples
with worms in them. Black Eyes ate the fruit and vegetables. He didn’t let
them sleep. He made them stay up late to swab the deck after dark and they
also had to shine Black Eyes’ gold for him. He did not share his gold and
treasure. He kept it all to himself. Black Eyes was a bad pirate.
One day, when the
ship had been at sea for two weeks, one of the pirates, Skull, went up the
mast and stood in the crow’s nest. A crow didn’t live in the nest. Pirates
just called it a crow’s nest. Skull took out his spyglass and looked
across the sea. “Ahoy there, ye land lubbers. I see an island over
yonder!” Captain Black Eyes told Skull to come down from the crow’s nest
and they set sail for the island.
Skull told one of
the other pirates to lower the anchor. It fell into the deep water. Black
Eyes and a few of the other pirates got into a small wooden boat and rowed
to the island. “Ahoy and yo ho ho!” said Black Eyes. “When we get to the
island, I want you to go and find some coconuts,” he told Skull. “Ye other
land lubbers will stay on the sand and polish my gold and then we’ll bury
it.”
Skull jumped out
of the rowing boat and pulled it onto the sand. He ran into the trees to
find some coconuts. The other pirates rubbed the gold with their shirts
and got it all shiny. Black Eyes sat in the grass under a tree and let
them do all the work. “Bury me gold.” The pirates had to dig a deep hole
in the sand and put all the gold into it. “Cover it up now, ye land
lubbers!” They pushed the sand back on top of the gold and filled the hole
in.
Skull came back
with a few coconuts. “Is that all you got?” Black Eyes asked. “Go back and
find some more. All of you go with Skull and help him find more. I want
more!” Black Eyes lay down and took a nap while the others went into the
trees to look for coconuts.
When he woke up he
didn’t see his rowing boat. He didn’t see the pirate ship. Skull and the
other pirates had rowed back to the big ship and sailed away while the
Captain took his nap. They had dug up all his gold and taken it with them
too! Black Eyes was mad. He was on an island and he was alone, with no
gold, no pirate ship, and no rum.
Just then a parrot
flew down from a tree. “Yo ho ho ho, a pirate’s life for me!” The parrot
sang.
The parrot’s name
was Patches. Patches and Black Eyes stayed on the island for the rest of
their lives. Black Eyes had to eat coconuts and listen to Patches sing
every single day. If only he’d been nicer to the other pirates, but, ah
well, he was not! |
