"No," said the Professor; "they are teetotalers, and Hercules is the President of the association. Come, let me introduce you to the amphibious animals who inhabit the forecastle."
The Professor and his two friends walked forward, and saw seated on the anchor an old sea-monster, with a very short pipe in his mouth. His original name was Timothy; but several reefs had been taken in it by his shipmates, and it had been finally tucked up into Tim.
Tom Seddon, like most young lovers who have just parted from the objects of their affections, had a tender heart, and, pitying the old sailor reduced to the necessity of endangering the end of his nose when he performed the important ceremony of fumigation, handed him a pipe with a long stem.
Old Tim examined this valuable present with a cool glance of criticism; and then proceeded to break the stem.
"Don't," said Tom. "What are you doing?"
"Too much timber!" said the old tar, laconically. And he broke off the stem within an inch of the bowl, which he filled with chips from a plug of tobacco; putting on top a live coal procured from the cook's galley.
"That beats thunder!" said Tom.
"Let him alone," said the Professor. "If he wants to give his proboscis the benefit of an auto da fe, it is his own business."
"Look at him!" said Tom.
"His nasal protuberance enveloped in vapor looks like an altar abundantly supplied with incense," said the Professor. "But who are those dusky gentlemen with whom Toney seems to be so intimate?"