"Whatchermean?"
"Oh, I was closte into the beach off Sandy Hook onct when we was tryin' to get to the south'ard, an' I see an eliphint about a hundred feet high on the island acrost the bay. There was a feller aboard as said they had cows there just as big what give milk. I wouldn't have believed him, but fer the fact that there ware the eliphint before my eyes."
"Stuffed, man,—he was stuffed," explained the captain.
"Stuffed or no; there he ware," persisted Trunnell. "He would 'a' been no bigger stuffed than alive. 'Tain't likely they could 'a' stretched his hide more'n a foot."
The skipper gave the third mate a sly look, and his nose worked busily like a parrot's beak for a few minutes.
"You believe lots o' things, eh?" said he, while his nose worked and wrinkled in amusement.
"I believe in pretty much all I sees an' some little I hears," said
Trunnell, dryly.
"'Specially in eliphints, eh?—a hundred feet high?"
"But not in argufying over facts," retorted Trunnell. "No, sink me, when I finds I'm argufying agin the world,—agin facts,—I tries to give in some and let the world get the best o' the argument. I've opinions the same as you have, but when they don't agree with the rest o' the world, do I go snortin' around a-tryin' to show how the world is wrong an' I am right? Sink me if I do. No, I tries to let the other fellow have a show. I may be right, but if I sees the world is agin me, I—"
"Right ye are, Trunnell. Spoken O.K." said the skipper. "I like to see a man what believes in a few things—even if they's eliphints. What do you think of the fellow forrads? Do you believe in him to any extent?"