"Wall, you see it all belongs to me, kinder," he said, after seating
himself, as he rubbed his huge, projecting knees, plainly indicated
through his nankeen trousers, with his capacious, horny hands. "I'm not
very particular, though, where I sleep on shipboard, but at home there's
few more so."
"I thought a captain was more at home on shipboard than anywhere else,"
I pursued mechanically; "such is the theory at least."
"Oh, not at all, not at all; when he has a snug nest on land, with a
wife and children waiting to receive him. You might as well talk of a
man in the new settlements bein' more at home in his wagon than in his
neat, hewn-log cabin."
"A very good simile, captain, and one that kills the ancient theory
outright. Let me thank you, however, before we proceed further, for all
the kindness and attention I have received in this floating castle of
yours, both from you and others. I hope and believe that my companions
in misfortune have fared as well."
"Wall, they have not wanted for nothing as far as I knew--the poor baby
in particular;" and, as he spoke, he roughed his hair with one hand and
smiled into my face a huge, honest, gummy smile, inexpressibly
reassuring.
"The man is hideous and repulsive," I thought; "but infinitely
preferable, somehow, to the specimen of English aristocracy and her maid
who have constituted themselves so far my guardian angels"--a twinge of
ingratitude here, which I resented instantly by settling my patriotic
prejudices to be at the root of the thing, and rebuking my mistrust
sternly though silently.
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