“Golly! yes, sah; dat would suit Jim all to nuffin.”
“But suppose, Jim, we went far away—as far as the North Pole?”
“Don’t care, sah,” said Jim, emphatically; “der never was a pole yet as Jim couldn’t climb.”
“Have you a surname, Jim?”
“No, sah,” replied poor Jim; “I’se got no belongings but de cockatoo.”
“I mean, Jim, have you a second name?”
“La! no, sir,” said Jim; “one name plenty good enough for a nigga boy. Only—yes now I ’members, in de ship dat bring me from Sierra Leone last summer de cap’n never call me nuffin else but Freezin’ Powders.”
McBain did not take long to make up his mind about anything; he determined to take this strange boy with him, so he took him to a shop and bought him a cage for the cockatoo, and then the two marched on board together, talking away as if they had known each other for years.
Freezing Powders was sent below to be washed and dressed and made decent. The ship was passing Inellan when he came on deck again. Jim was thunderstruck; he had never seen snow before.
“La! sah,” he cried, pointing with outstretched arm towards the hills; “look, sah, look; dey never like dat before. De Great Massa has been and painted dem all white.”