"Where was that?"
"I was in a whale-ship, off the coast of Greenland. I was tired enough of it then, but now I'd like to have just one breath of air off those icebergs."
"So would I," said the paymaster. "It would be so refreshing."
At this, a little, dumpy man, who had sat lolling back in his chair, with his hat pushed down over his eyes, and his cigar, which he had allowed to go out, pointing upward toward his left cheek, started up, and carelessly inquired:
"Were you ever there, sir?"
"Yes, when I was a youngster. I went up there just to see the country. I spent five years on the voyage."
The dumpy man made no answer, but there was a roguish twinkle in his eye, as he drew a little memorandum-book from his pocket, and, after deliberately placing it on his knee, proceeded to make the following entry, on a page which was headed "Chronological Tables," and which was covered on one side with writing, and on the other by a long column of figures:
Paymaster spent on voyage to Greenland 5 years.
After adding up the column of figures, he closed the book and returned it to his pocket. Then, turning to the paymaster, he quietly remarked:
"Four hundred and eighty-five years old! That's doing well-extremely well. You don't look as old as that, sir. You won't find one man in five hundred hold his age as well as you do."