“Never mind apologies, now,” replied Stump, “seeing as the way you acted was parfectly nat’ral, considering that you hadn’t met for half an hour. But those pow-wows, twist ’em, have sarved us a lubberly trick; for, besides taking the ship, they haven’t left me a drop of ’ile to grease my pigtail with!”
“Your pigtail, friend Jack, is of but little consequence, at present,” said the harpooner; “it will doubtless need oiling more than it does now, before we are picked up.”
“Ay, ay, there’s some truth in that last,” retorted Stump, with a mournful “grin,” “and I’m sorry for it, because I always like to keep the ‘thing’ neat and shining like, when there’s a young lass to look at it.”
“Then you may set your mind at ease, my friend,” said Alice, kindly, “for I like the pigtail as well without it as with it.”
“The Stumps always wore ’em ’iled,” said the shipkeeper, shaking his head; “but it’s consoling to me, at any rate, Miss Alice, to hear you say that you like mine as well when it doesn’t shine as when it does.”
“We are certainly in a very disagreeable situation, at present,” said Marline.
“There’s no disputing that p’int,” replied Stump, as he threw a woeful glance around him. “There isn’t a very fine prospectus spread out before us, seeing as these cold blocks and bergs of ice don’t look quite as comfortable as the quarters we are used to. Then, again, we ain’t got any provision to live on, which is another parfectly overpowering consideration.”
“It’s a pity,” said Marline, “that the captain and his crew did not remain aboard the ship, as they are accustomed to do. Then all this trouble would have been prevented. You and I, Stump, can easily endure the hardships before us; but, with Alice, it is different.”
“Indeed,” said the captain’s niece, assuming a gay tone; “you will find that I can bear them, too. Besides,” she continued, “as soon as the fog clears, we will see the other boats, and then we can go ashore, and build a tent, and make a good fire.”
“All this will come to pass, in time, I have no doubt,” replied Harry, “and very soon, too, if Briggs and the men, who left me about an hour before the ship stove my boat, have succeeded in their purpose, which was to find our friends. But, if they have failed, and have lost themselves, we may have to pass the night upon the ice, and perhaps a great portion of the next day, for this fog, in my opinion, will be of long duration.”