“That was because you had not looked them up beforehand. Most of them are given on the chart of the North Atlantic.”
“I am not so much of a bookworm as some of the fellows.”
“Here comes Dr. Winstock,” continued Wainwright, as the captain’s barge of the Prince came up to the landing.
“I suppose he will convoy us here, as he has before,” added Scott. “I wonder if there is a place on the face of the earth where he has not been.”
“He was a surgeon in the navy for a good many years; and I suppose our men-of-war have visited all these islands.”
“Are you willing to take us in tow, doctor?” asked Scott, as the surgeon, attended by Capt. Sheridan and Lieut. Murray, approached them.
“I shall be very happy to do so if you won’t labor too hard with those tremendous jokes of yours,” replied the doctor, laughing.
“I don’t think I labor very hard at them. I try to be as solemn as an owl; but somehow I don’t get along worth a cent,” pleaded Scott.
“I should be sorry to have you break your back by struggling in the other direction; and I have not the slightest objection to your jokes; only labor not to be funny.”
“I strive not to do so; and I have rejected some of the best things ever thought of, because I found I had been studying upon them.”