"Wh-e-w! you belong to the independent sailors. You'll come down
from that afore you get a ship in this port. Why, I can get a good,
prime nigger feller sailor for eight dollars a month and his feed."
Jack concluded not to sail in any of the old man's big ships, and
said, "Yes, I joined them a long time ago, and I ha'n't regretted
it, neither; wouldn't pull a bow-line a penny less. I don't like
drogging, no-how. Good morning, sir," said he, putting on his hat.
and backing out of the door.
"I wish you'd a' taken a chance with my father, old fellow; he'd a'
made you captain afore a year," said George, as he was leaving the
door.
"The like o' that don't signify. I've been skipper in the West Ingie
trade years ago. There isn't much difference between a nigger and a
schooner's captain," said Jack, as he walked off to the Janson,
preparatory to taking lodgings ashore.
That afternoon about five o'clock, a loud noise was heard on board a
little schooner, of about sixty tons' register, that lay in a bend
of the wharf a few lengths ahead of the Janson. Captain Thompson and
his second mate were seated on a locker in the cabin, conversing
upon the prospects ahead, when the noise became so loud that they
ran upon deck to witness the scene.
George stood upon the capsill of the wharf, with mortification
pictured in his countenance.
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