"I'll tell you what I want of you. Have you forgotten James Peterson, that used to go with me?"
"I never had any shipmate of that name that I knows of."
"Yes, you had. He was a negro. I used to hire him of his master. He was with us in the James Welch to Cadiz the time I had the big dog."
"I don't mind any nigger, only Flour."
"Well, it's Flour I mean. His real name is Peterson."
"Ay, I mind him well, and liked him well."
"You know the blacks are free here at the north since the war."
"I've heard so. Then they are a mighty sight better off than the sailors."
"He went out of here to Martinique, with a great villain, in one of our vessels. I coaxed him to go, because it was hard to get a crew; and the rascal has sold him to a planter there. I am going to have him back."
"If you can get him."