"Rather hazy.—It looks like rain."
"Quite the reverse. The sky is quite clear."
"Independent of that fog-bank."
"Fog! I see no fog. You are blind, my dear Madam. The atmosphere is unusually clear."
Flora stared at him. "Could the man be in his senses?" Presently she remarked, "that they must be near land, from the quantity of sea-weed floating upon the water."
"That's not sea-weed!"
"Mr. Lootie, I was born and brought up on the sea-coast: don't you think I know sea-weed?"
"Not if you call pieces of reed and grass sea-weed. And as to being near land, that's all fudge. The Captain only says so to please you."
Lyndsay, who was standing near, now took Flora's arm, and walked to the other side of the deck. "What a little contradictory, snarling creature it is!" he said. "Why do you bandy words with him? Look, here is a piece of twisted paper. I will go forward, and throw it overboard. It looks like nothing but what it is. You return to Lootie, and when it passes, say, 'There's a piece of white paper,' and just hear how he will contradict the fact."