"Not a bit of it; a philosopher would have passed these two worthless sugar canes just as a place-hunter passes an overthrown minister, that is, as unworthy of notice."
"And what did you do?"
"Well, I, the headless, the thoughtless, the stupid—for these are the epithets I am usually favored with—I took them up, scrutinized them carefully, and discovered—"
"That they were sugar canes."
"In the first instance, yes."
"Very clever, that!"
"And then that they had not been torn up—they had been cut."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, most wise and learned brother, that is all; and I leave you to draw the inferences."
"I may add," observed the sailor, "that, as we were steering for the plantation, myself on the starboard and Jack on the larboard—"