"I don't know; I'm afraid you won't be," laughed Scott.
"I am sincere; and whatever you say, I shall believe you intend to do me a kindness."
"That's so. The fellows are prejudiced against you because you are selfish, conceited, overbearing, and tyrannical," said Scott, squarely.
"You don't mean all that; you only repeat what you have heard others say."
"I do repeat what I have heard others say, and I'm bound to add that I believe it myself. When you give an order, you do it just as though you were a superior being; as though you were everybody, and I were nobody—that's so."
"I was not aware of it."
"Then you put on airs, even in the cabin, and with your superior. You go in for the breast of the chickens, and drown your coffee with the last gill of milk in the ship."
Cantwell bit his lips, and seemed to be very much annoyed.
"Then you think you know everything, and other fellows nothing. You are willing to give your own opinion, but you won't hear that of others," continued Scott, as bluntly as the case seemed to require.