It took Peggy a very long time to make up her mind. At last she chose a beautiful little tub, oval shaped, bound with three hoops of white wood, and with two handles to lift it by. Dr. Seaton wanted to hold it for her, but Peggy wouldn’t let it out of her own hands, she was so well pleased with it.
The captain told her that the tubs came from a place in Russia with a funny name—Archangel; and that pleased Peggy even more, because it was so much more interesting to have an Archangel tub than an ordinary Scotch or English one.
Then the captain led the way down into his cabin. The cabin of a ship like this is not like that of a large passenger steamer. It is almost as small and dark as a cupboard, and has only just room for a tiny table and two or three chairs. The table was securely fixed to the floor, so that when the sea was rough with big waves it should not slide about.
The captain brought out from a cupboard a funny-shaped bottle, and the smallest glasses Peggy had ever seen. He poured a little stuff out of the bottle into the glasses, and offered one to Dr. Seaton, who took it and smiled; then the captain took one, and held it out, and knocked the edge of the little glasses together, making a tinkling sound like a bell.
“What does he do that for?” Peggy asked.
“It’s a way of being friendly and polite in Denmark,” Dr. Seaton replied.
Then they both smiled and nodded again, and each drank off the stuff from the glass.
“Let me taste, please,” said Peggy, standing on tip-toe by the table.
“You would think it horrid,” said Dr. Seaton, laughing; “it would burn your throat.”