just to get a two-minute glimpse of one of them is a thing for a
body to remember and tell about for a thousand years. Why,
Captain, just think of this: if Abraham was to set his foot down
here by this door, there would be a railing set up around that
foot-track right away, and a shelter put over it, and people would
flock here from all over heaven, for hundreds and hundreds of
years, to look at it. Abraham is one of the parties that Mr.
Talmage, of Brooklyn, is going to embrace, and kiss, and weep on,
when he comes. He wants to lay in a good stock of tears, you know,
or five to one he will go dry before he gets a chance to do it."

"Sandy," says I, "I had an idea that _I_ was going to be equals
with everybody here, too, but I will let that drop. It don't
matter, and I am plenty happy enough anyway."

"Captain, you are happier than you would be, the other way. These
old patriarchs and prophets have got ages the start of you; they
know more in two minutes than you know in a year. Did you ever try
to have a sociable improving-time discussing winds, and currents
and variations of compass with an undertaker?"

"I get your idea, Sandy. He couldn't interest me. He would be an
ignoramus in such things--he would bore me, and I would bore him."

"You have got it. You would bore the patriarchs when you talked,
and when they talked they would shoot over your head. By and by
you would say, 'Good morning, your Eminence, I will call again'--
but you wouldn't. Did you ever ask the slush-boy to come up in the
cabin and take dinner with you?"