"But I'll be shot if it is enough for me!"
"Commodore Burghe, sir, will you allow me to suggest something?" said the professor, coming forward, hat in hand.
"And who the deuce are you? Oh, I see! the artist-in-general to the country side! Well, what do you suggest?" laughed the old man.
"If I might be so bold, sir, it would be to send young Ishmael to school."
"Send him to school! Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho! why, he'd like that least of anything else! why, he'd consider that the most ungrateful of all returns to make for his services! Boys are sent to school for punishment, not for reward!" laughed the commodore.
"Young Ishmael wouldn't think it a punishment, sir," mildly suggested the professor.
"I tell you he wouldn't go, my friend! punishment or no punishment! Why, I can scarcely make my own fellows go! Bosh! I know boys; school is their bugbear."
"But, under correction, sir, permit me to say I don't think you know young Ishmael."
"I know he is a boy; that is enough!"
"But, sir, he is rather an uncommon boy."