Ready About by Oliver Optic

Perhaps the principal reason why Dory Dornwood and the instructor in mechanics had obtained so easy a victory over the two members of the Nautifelers Club who remained on board of the La Motte, was that both of them were soaked with beer. They were not intoxicated in the worst sense of the word: they were "boozy" and stupid.

They had been left on board while the other three had gone on shore to "do the job" at the school, and, no doubt, the time in the furious storm hung heavy on their hands. They had imbibed from the keg until they were deprived of whatever natural energy belonged to them, and they did not seem to have either the pluck or the ability to do any thing for themselves. A stronger intoxicant might have made them wild and desperate: the beer simply stupefied them.