"Well," went on the captain, "I told her that the last suggestion
weren't such a bad one, but there was one little objection to it.
Considerin' that I hadn't ever laid eyes on Steve and that I hadn't seen
you since you was a baby, the chances was against my recognizin' you
if we did meet. Ho, ho, ho! Finally I hinted that I might look in the
directory, and she got more reconciled to my startin'. Honest, I do
believe she'd have insisted on takin' me by the hand and leadin' me to
you, if I hadn't told her that.

"So I did look in the directory and got the number on Fifth Avenue where
you used to be. I asked a policeman the nighest way to get there, and
he said take a bus. Last time I was in New York I rode in one of those
Fifth Avenue omnibuses, and I never got such a jouncin' in my life.
The pavement then was round cobble stones, like some of the roads
in Nantucket. I remember I tried to ask a feller that set next to me
somethin' or other, and I swan to man I couldn't get nothin' out of my
mouth but rattles. 'Metropolitan Museum,' sounded like puttin' in a ton
of coal. I thought I was comin' apart, or my works was out of order, or
somethin', but when the feller tried to answer he rattled just as bad,
so I realized 'twas the reg'lar disease and felt some better. I never
shall forget a fleshy woman--somethin' like that Mrs. Dunn friend of
yours, Caroline--that set opposite me. It give me the crawls to look at
her, her chins shook around so. Ho! ho! she had no less'n three of 'em,
and they all shook different ways. Ho! ho! ho! If I'd been in the habit
of wearin' false hair or teeth or anything that wa'n't growed to or
buttoned on me I'd never have risked a trip in one of those omnibuses.

"So when the police officer prescribed one for me this v'yage, I was
some dubious. I'm older'n I was ten year ago, and I wa'n't sure that I'd