"I tell you it is a fish. Do you think I don't know a fish when I see one."
"Nonsense!" shouted the others. "It's a man."
"I say he is a fish. Don't you see that he has a Finn on his back, and Finns each side of him?" returned Scott.
"You get out!" shouted Jones. "A fellow that will deliberately make a pun isn't fit to live in polite society."
"Then I'm finished for polite society," added Scott; "though I don't see how you know anything about it, for you never were there, or your manners belie you. By the way, did you know that our government had sent over to this country for a fortune-teller, or seer—one of those fellows they used to have in Scotland?"
"What for?" asked Laybold.
"They want to make him secretary of the treasury."
"Why so?" inquired Jones.
"Because they need a financier; for the fellow would certainly be one. There, do you see that French conjunction on the shore? Hear him bark."