"I—didn't know that."
"You do now. Look: wouldn't it be unwise to send Artemis to be gone for months on the Barbados triangle, when she's all he owns—she and the little sloop Hebe at Newport that can't give much account of herself?"
"What would you have him do?"
"I think Artemis should make short voyages—should take that salt cod, for instance, maybe no further than New York, back at once for more, until the debt is cleared. I suppose the harshest of 'em would give him that much time. And then I think that when the debt is cleared, he ought to get a few more little fast vessels like Hebe for the coastal trade, for heaven knows that's the bread and butter of this colony, and let the long ventures wait a few years."
"Then tell him so, Ben."
"I?... Commerce should be building, not gambling, a'n't that so? Well, I think Uncle John believes that, but is moved to gamble all the same. The great ventures draw his heart—and why not, seeing that in the past he's won them? Only, now...."
"You might as well say it: now he's old, and in trouble, and the times themselves are changing, so everyone seems to think. Tell him how you see it. I say tell him, little brother."
"Can't you be sensible, Muttonhead?"
"Sensible—mm-yas. Well, tell him, maybe not that last morsel of your wisdom, but tell him at least about the little companions for Hebe, and short voyages for Artemis."
"I'm to instruct a man of seventy, when he won't even hear to my signing on to learn a bit of seamanship and so be of use to him?"