'Here!—You going to set there all day?'
I lit in the middle of the floor, shot there by the electric suddenness of the surprise. As soon as I could get my voice I said, apologetically:—'I have had no orders, sir.'
'You've had no orders! My, what a fine bird we are! We must have orders! Our father was a gentleman—owned slaves—and we've been to school. Yes, we are a gentleman, too, and got to have orders! orders, is it? Orders is what you want! Dod dern my skin, i'll learn you to swell yourself up and blow around here about your dod-derned orders! G'way from the wheel!' (I had approached it without knowing it.)
I moved back a step or two, and stood as in a dream, all my senses stupefied by this frantic assault.
'What you standing there for? Take that ice-pitcher down to the texas-tender-come, move along, and don't you be all day about it!'
The moment I got back to the pilot-house, Brown said—
'Here! What was you doing down there all this time?'
'I couldn't find the texas-tender; I had to go all the way to the pantry.'
'Derned likely story! Fill up the stove.'