“Fo’ de lub ob goodness, boss,” he went on, “what was dat hit us? Granddaddy whale or suthin’?”
“Neither, Jupe; but a battleship.”
Jupe threw up his hands.
“A battleship! Good lan’ ob Goshen, ah done heah ob a locusmocus buttin’ ah niggah’s haid, but I nebber heard tell ob a battleship hitting a peanut like dis yar.”
“Peanut!” cried Jack with mock indignation.
“Ah jes’ means a menagerie peanut, Marse Jack.”
“That’s where you find them, as a rule—in a menagerie.”
“Oh, I don’ mean dat peanut what you eat. Ah mean, compahed wid dat battling ship dis yar White Shark ain’ as big as a peanut to a whale, no sah. But ah am certingly grossly ‘xaggerated ter fin’ dat we am still in de water and not undah it,” concluded Jupe, shuffling off to repair the damage in his kitchen.
Luckily, most of the “china” was agate ware, and the majority of the movable articles, including the kitchen utensils, were designed so to remain stationary, so the damage was not as great as might have been anticipated; but it was bad enough.
“And now for the surface,” declared Mr. Dancer; “and, in the meantime, Chadwick, you had better look at that half-drowned man. You’ll find the medicine chest in my cabin.”