"As for getting a job," he suggested, "there's no need to be downcast; no need at all. If the worst came to the worst, there's the Hannah Hoo, f'r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer."
"Ay, to be sure—I'd forgot the bark'nteen."
"Come!" said Cai with a quick smile, playing up towards his grand coup. "What would you say to shippin' aboard the Hannah Hoo?"
"What?—as mate under you? . . . I'd say," answered 'Bias slowly, "as I'd see you damned first."
"But"—Cai stared at him in bewilderment—"who was proposin' any such thing? As skipper I thought o' you—what elst? Leastways—"
"And you?"
"Me? . . . But why? There's no call for me goin' to sea again."
"Ah, to be sure," said 'Bias bitterly, "I was forgettin'. You'll stay ashore and make up your losses by marryin'!"
"But I haven't had any losses!" stammered Cai. "Not beyond the hundred pound in the Saltypool. . . . Didn't I make that plain?"
"No, you didn't." 'Bias laid down his pipe. "Are you standin' there and tellin' me that your papers are all right and safe?"