those occasions that a skipper, after many days of
boisterous drifting, remarked to his mate, "I wish our wives
knew where we are this terrible night!"

"Yes," replied the shrewd officer, with comic candour; "and
I wish to heaven we knew where we are ourselves!"

Such was the almost opaque ignorance, in spite of which a
very large carrying trade was successfully kept going for
generations.

The writing of the old-time skipper was so atrocious that it
brought much bad language into the world. One gentleman used
to say that his captain's letters used to go all over the
country before they fell into his hands, and when they did,
they were covered over with "try here" and "try there."
Their manners, too, were aboriginal; and they spoke with an
accent which was terrible. They rarely expressed themselves
in a way that would indicate excessive purity of character.
They thought it beneath the dignity of a man to be of any
other profession than that of a sailor. They disdained
showing soft emotion, and if they shook hands it was done in
an apologetic way. The gospel of pity did not enter into
their creed. Learning, as they called it, was a bewilderment
to them; and yet some of those eccentric, half-savage beings
could be entrusted with valuable property, and the
negotiation of business involving most intricate handling.
Sometimes in the settlement of knotty questions they used
their own peculiar persuasiveness, and if that was not
convincing, they indicated the possibility of physical