The face, which was that of a man about forty years of age, was very large and square, with enormous ears, round, twinkling blue eyes, a flat nose, and a pair of lips that kept moving from side to side, producing a ludicrous effect upon the whole countenance. An old-fashioned pigtail, carefully tied near its extremity, and well greased with whale oil, hung from the back of the head, keeping time with the movements of the wearer, and giving to the huge glazed sou’wester that crowned his skull, the appearance of a very unnatural animal, with a black shell and a long tail. Passing on, we come to the figure, which was not unlike that of a cask, while the arms were of enormous length. The legs, on the contrary, were very short. The dress of this person, besides the sou’wester alluded to, consisted of a Guernsey frock—so profusely ornamented with patches of different sizes and hues, as to remind the spectator of “Joseph’s coat of many colors”—and pants of canvas-duck, very coarse, but scrupulously clean, with the bottoms flowing loosely around a pair of neat, well-fitting pumps.
“Good-morning, John Stump,” said Alice, as the sailor lifted his sou’wester and bowed, scraping his right foot as he did so.
“Jack Stump, if it please your pretty lips, miss—for I always feel as though I was turned wrong side out when anybody calls me John. Jack’s the name that I’ve always gone by, ever since I was as big as a turtle.”
“Oh, very well—Jack Stump it shall be, then. You have something particular to say to me, Jack,” she added, as the seaman suddenly placed his forefinger upon the side of his flat nose, while his great blue eyes began to roll in his head.
“Ay, ay,” he said, at last, in a low voice, “I’ve been a-trying to get out, what I wanted to say to you, sweet lass but your beauty choked the words in my throat, as a stick of candy put in the mouth of a baby stops its squalling. Such beauty as yours, miss—”
“That will do, Jack,” interrupted Alice, with a gratified smile, for she was too truthful to pretend that the compliment did not please her; “that will do, and I am much obliged to you. But you have aroused my curiosity, and I would thank you to come to the point at once.”
“Here it goes, then,” said Stump, speaking in a voice of mysterious confidence, “here it goes, sure enough, which is, that I’m a friend to you and the captain, and I wish that everybody in the ship was the same.”
“Why! how is this, Jack? My father’s crew are all friendly to us, are they not?”
“Good grub!” said Stump, in a deep voice, “is the first consideration in a whaler. Good officers the second, and good luck the third. Them are the three things that wins men’s hearts—them are the things that have won mine. But there are some beings that has the shape of men, and yet they ain’t men for all that;—amphibious animals like, that has more of the shark than human natur’ in their corporosities, and believe me, Miss Alice, there are such creatur’s in this bark. Just turn your pretty eyes forward, young lady—sly like, as you women know so well how to do—and look at them five blue-skinned devils standin’ there by the windlass a-whispering and talking together. D’ye see ’em?”
“I do,” replied Alice. “Four New Zealanders and the Portuguese steward; but what of that?”