accept the job."

"You lie!"

"WHAT? Why, you little sawed-off, dried-up, sassy son of a sea
cook! I'll--"

Winslow's lanky form was interposed between the pair; and his slow,
gentle drawl made itself heard.

"I'm sorry to interrupt the experience meetin'," he said, "but I'VE
got a call to testify and I feel the spirit aworkin'. Set down
again, Sam, will you please. Phineas, you set down over there.
Please set down, both of you. Sam, as a favor to me--"

But the captain was not in a favor-extending mood. He glowered at
his adversary and remained standing.

"Phin--" begged Winslow. But Mr. Babbitt, although a trifle paler
than when he entered the shop, was not more yielding.

"I'm particular who I set down along of," he declared. "I'd as
soon set down with a--a rattlesnake as I would with some humans."

Captain Sam was not pale, far from it.

"Skunks are always afraid of snakes, they tell me," he observed,
tartly. "A rattlesnake's honest, anyhow, and he ain't afraid to
bite. He ain't all bad smell and nothin' else."