"
"No, it wasn't to be expected, you with your head and shoulders walking
around in a barrel of jam."
The harbor master smiled wistfully.
"More I don't require," he said.
"Ah, so you say now--Well, marry the sea, then. It's a slippery embrace,
take the word of a man who has gone foreign voyages."
"I mistrust the sea," said Jethro.
"So you do.--You mistrust the sea and the like o' that, and you mistrust
women and the like o' that. There's too much heaving and tossing in such
waters for a harbor master, hey?"
"I'm at home here, that's a fact," said Jethro. "I know the tides and
the buoys. I can find my way in the dark, where another man would be at
a total loss. I'm never suffering for landmarks."
"Landmarks!" roared Deep-water Peter. "What's a landmark good for but to
take a new departure?"
To the sea-goers, tilted on a bench in the shadow of the Customs House,
he added, "What life must be without a touch of lady fever is more than
I can tell."
A red-bearded viking at the end of the bench rose and took Peter's
shoulders in a fearful grip.
"What's all this talk of lady fever?"
"Let be, Cap'n Dreed!" cried Peter. His boisterousness failed him like
wind going out of a sail. He twisted out of the big seaman's grip and
from a distance shouted, "If you weren't so cussed bashful, you might
have had something more than a libel pinned to your mainmast by now,
with all this time in port.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333