"Just so. Isn't a mast made out of a tree?"
"Certainly."
"And isn't the tree dead before it can be made into a mast?"
"Why, yes," says he, and now it was his turn to be down in the mouth.
"Well, then, isn't the edge of the water there chuck full of dead trees?"
At first the captain sort of choked a little; but the next minute he burst out a laughing.
"Do you want to know my opinion?" says he.
"Well, rather," says I.
"Well, it's this: Green Mountain or not, if anybody buys a certain lady I know of for a fool, he'll get awfully taken in."
"Shouldn't wonder," says I.