Mulford had some difficulty in restraining his smiles each time the
full-jigger was mentioned, but Rose's expression of countenance kept
him in excellent order--and she, innocent creature, saw nothing
ridiculous in the term, though the twelve masts had given her a
little alarm. Delighted that the old lady had got through her
enumeration of the spars with so much success, Rose cried, in the
exuberance of her spirits--"Well, aunty, for my part, I find a
half-jigger vessel, so very, very beautiful, that I do not know how
I should behave were I to go on board a full-jigger."

Mulford turned abruptly away, the circumstance of Rose's making
herself ridiculous giving him sudden pain, though he could have
laughed at her aunt by the hour.

"Ah, my dear, that is on account of your youth and inexperience--but
you will learn better in time. I was just so, myself, when I was of
your age, and thought the fore-rafters were as handsome as the
squared-jiggers, but soon after I married Capt. Budd I felt the
necessity of knowing more than I did about ships, and I got him to
teach me. He did n't like the business, at first, and pretended I
would never learn; but, at last, it came all at once like, and then
he used to be delighted to hear me `talk ship,' as he called it.
I've known him laugh, with his cronies, as if ready to die, at my
expertness in sea-terms, for half an hour together--and then he
would swear--that was the worst fault your uncle had, Rosy--he would
swear, sometimes, in a way that frightened me, I do declare!"

"But he never swore at you, aunty?"