at six years of age, popeye began to fulfill his promise of taking his exercising more seriously and started devoting himself to fights with the local bullies, easily laying his foes among the geranium flowerbeds, always promising to do so and never breaking his word. with popeye around, the local bullies did not need the aid of any pliers or doorknobs to get rid of those useless bicuspids thanks to popeye's left-right to the jaw. as popeye's notoriety grew among the children, he inadvertently became a factor for good in discouraging his fellow rough-dock kids from crapshooting, doing so by being too good at the game himself, as he always got 18 straight passes when he rolled the dice. despite his love of crapshooting, popeye would be forced to sell his beloved dice for the lead in them after his guardian whaler joe fell on tough times. one day, popeye set out on a boat with nothing but a bent pin and a spool of thread in hopes of helping his guardian by catching whales for him. unfortunately, upon reaching the whale pod, popeye realized he was grievously ill-prepared against the giant sea beasts who thrashed about his little vessel as they let out a loud horselaugh, which made popeye respond with a quick tempered "blow me down, you-!"—but before he could finish, the whales suddenly stopped. it was then that the largest whale, deeply offended, got on little popeye's vessel and sprayed him with a mighty jet of water. this action infuriated the young popeye so heavily that his anger became pure strength; he quickly got back on his feet and punched whale with all his might, instantly killing the proud alpha and proceeded to take on the rest of the pod. a triumphant little popeye then returned home with a nice string of whales for whaler joe that night.