“Would you like a little more tart?” asked Aunt Jane.
“Bravo! Ailie,” cried Glynn, “that’s a fair question. I back it up.”
“How much do you claim for damages, George?” inquired Aunt Martha, changing the subject.
(“Question!” whispered Glynn.)
“Two thousand pounds,” answered the captain.
“What!” exclaimed the aunts, in a simultaneous burst of amazement. “All for one fish?”
“Ay, it was a big one, you see, and Dick Jones, one of the men of the Termagant, told me it was sold for that. It’s a profitable fishing, when one doesn’t lose one’s ship. What do you say to go with me and Ailie on our next trip, sisters? You might use up all your silk and worsted thread and crooked pins.”
“What nonsense you talk, George; but I suppose you really do use pretty large hooks and lines when you fish for whales?”
Aunt Martha addressed the latter part of her remark to Tim Rokens, who seemed immensely tickled by the captain’s pleasantry.
“Hooks and lines, ma’am!” cried Rokens, regarding his hostess with a look of puzzled surprise.