“Oh, I didn’t go so far as to think that, sir, because you’re a hofficer and a gentleman, and a scholar who has larnt more things than I ever heerd of; but still, sir, I dessay you won’t mind owning as a fellow as has been at sea from fourteen to four-and-thirty has picked up things such as you couldn’t larn at school.”
“Black cats, for instance, Tom?”
“Yes, sir. Ah, you may laugh to yourself, but there’s more than you think of about a black cat.”
“A black skin, for instance, Tom, and if the poor brute was killed and skinned he’d look exactly like a white cat or a tortoise-shell.”
“Oh, that’s his skin, sir; it’s his nature.”
“Pooh! What can there be in a black cat’s nature?”
“Don’t know; that’s the mystery on it.”
“Can’t you explain what the mystery is?”
“No, sir, and I never met a shipmate as could.”
“Bother the cat! It’s all rubbish, Tom.”