laugh. Hence its name. It is very common in the Bahamas.


"Dreaming of Sophy Collingwood," sais the Captain, "and the witch of
Eskisooney, eh?"

"Yes, dreamin' of bright eyes and smilin' faces, or anythin' else
that's near and dear, for to my idea, the heart gives the subject for
the head to think upon. In a fair wind and a charmin' day like this, I
never coiled up on the deck for a nap in my life, that I had'nt
pleasant dreams. You feel as if you were at peace with all the world
in general, and yourself in partikeler, and that it is very polite of
folks to stay to home ashore, and let you and your friends enjoy
yourselves without treadin' on your toes, and wakin' of you up if
asleep, or a jostlin' of you in your turn on the quarter-deck, or
over-hearin' of your conversation.

"And ain't you always ready for your meals, and don't you walk into
them in rael right down earnest? Oh, nothing ever tastes so good to me
as it does at sea. The appetite, like a sharp knife, makes the meat
seem tender, and the sea air is a great friend of digestion, and
always keeps company with it. Then you don't care to sit and drink
after dinner as you do at an hotel of an idle day, for you want to go
on deck, light your cigar, take a sweep round the horizon with your
glass to see if there is any sail in sight, glance at the sky to
ascertain if the breeze is likely to hold, and then bring yourself to
anchor on a seat, and have a dish of chat for a dessert with the
captain, if he is a man of books like you, Cutler, or a man of reefs,
rocks, and sandbars, fish, cordwood, and smugglin', or collisions,
wracks, and salvage, like the pilot.