Now, higher sympathies apart, for Jarl I had a wonderful liking; for
he loved me; from the first had cleaved to me.

It is sometimes the case, that an old mariner like him will conceive
a very strong attachment for some young sailor, his shipmate; an
attachment so devoted, as to be wholly inexplicable, unless
originating in that heart-loneliness which overtakes most seamen as
they grow aged; impelling them to fasten upon some chance object of
regard. But however it was, my Viking, thy unbidden affection was the
noblest homage ever paid me. And frankly, I am more inclined to think
well of myself, as in some way deserving thy devotion, than from the
rounded compliments of more cultivated minds.

Now, at sea, and in the fellowship of sailors, all men appear as they
are. No school like a ship for studying human nature. The contact of
one man with another is too near and constant to favor deceit. You
wear your character as loosely as your flowing trowsers. Vain
all endeavors to assume qualities not yours; or to conceal those you
possess. Incognitos, however desirable, are out of the question. And
thus aboard of all ships in which I have sailed, I have invariably
been known by a sort of thawing-room title. Not,--let me hurry to
say,--that I put hand in tar bucket with a squeamish air, or ascended
the rigging with a Chesterfieldian mince. No, no, I was never better
than my vocation; and mine have been many. I showed as brown a chest,
and as hard a hand, as the tarriest tar of them all. And never did
shipmate of mine upbraid me with a genteel disinclination to duty,
though it carried me to truck of main-mast, or jib-boom-end, in the
most wolfish blast that ever howled.

Whence then, this annoying appellation? for annoying it most