Griffith is a seaman; and if he
gave his mind less to trifles and gimcracks, he would be, by the time he
got to about our years, a very rational sort of a companion.--But you
see, parson, just now, he thinks too much of small follies; such as man-
of-war discipline.--Now there is rationality in giving a fresh nip to a
rope, or in looking well at your mats, or even in crowning a cable; but
damme, priest, if I see the use--luff, luff, you lubber; don't ye see,
sir, you are steering for Garmany!--If I see the use, as I was saying,
of making a rumpus about the time when a man changes his shirt; whether
it be this week, or next week, or, for that matter, the week after,
provided it be bad weather. I sometimes am mawkish about attending
muster (and I believe I have as little to fear on the score of behavior
as any man), lest it should be found I carried my tobacco in the wrong
cheek!"
"I have indeed thought it somewhat troublesome to myself, at times; and
it is in a striking degree vexatious to the spirit, especially when the
body has been suffering under seasickness."
"Why, yes, you were a little apt to bend your duds wrong for the first
month or so," said the master; "I remember you got the marine's scraper
on your head, once, in your hurry to bury a dead man! Then you never
looked as if you belonged to the ship, so long as those cursed black
knee-breeches lasted! For my part, I never saw you come up the quarter-
deck ladder, but I expected to see your shins give way across the
combing of the hatch--a man does look like the devil, priest, scudding
about a ship's decks in that fashion, under bare poles! But now the
tailor has found out the articles ar'n't seaworthy, and we have got your
lower stanchions cased in a pair of purser's slops, I am puzzled often
to tell your heels from those of a maintopman!"
"I have good reason to be thankful for the change," said the humbled
priest, "if the resemblance you mention existed, while I was clad in the
usual garb of one of my calling.
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