"You didn't tell me."
"I didn't think I had t' tell you. I thought ev'body in the world knowed that much about me."
"Well, well!" says the skipper. "Never seed your pa in all your life! Who told you all them yarns then?"
"Ev'body."
"Oh! Ev'body, eh? I sees. Jus' so. You like t' hear yarns about your pa?"
"Well," says the lad, "I 'low I certainly do! Wouldn't you—if you had a pa like me?"
'Twas too swift a question.
"Me?" says Skipper Harry, nonplused.
"Ay—tell me!"
Skipper Harry was a kind man an' a foolish one. "I bet ye I would!" says he, "I'd fair crave 'em. I'd pester the harbor with questions about my pa."