When I turned out in the morning my temper had a less sinister aspect. I heard the black moke of a “doctor” singing in the galley, while the odour of steaming coffee filled the air—
“Oh, I’se an ole Cape Ho’ner,
An’ I’se gwine round de co’ner,
An’ I’se gwine whar de sun doan nebber shine.”
I drew several long, deep breaths of the fresh morning air and walked out on the main deck.
“Foine marnin’, Mr. Gore,” said O’Toole, as he came down the starboard gangway, “an’ if that bloody naygur’ll devote th’ energy he’s wastin’, t’gettin’ out some belly ballast for us, we’ll be for shorring up as far as the main hatch by dark.”
A little hinting from Mr. O’Toole as to some sundry personal disadvantages to the doctor that might arise if breakfast didn’t appear suddenly on the cabin table, had the effect of silencing the moke and producing the steward with the hand-bell.
Captain Crojack seated himself at the head of the table and cast a suspicious glance at me over the rim of his cup, while he drank his coffee in silence. I said nothing about what I had overheard in the saloon the day before, and nothing about Mr. Ropesend’s reasons for sending us an inexperienced officer. I tried to talk of the skipper’s sister and niece, who were to be our passengers. Then the old man asked plainly if I knew that Mr. Brown was to sail as third mate, and I answered bluntly that I did.
It was so evident, from his tone, that he was trying to find out the reason why the young man should do this that I determined, out of pure combativeness, not to gratify his curiosity. I might also add that I could not have truthfully gratified it, even had I so wished, for all I had heard was but the gossip of clerks and Mr. Ropesend’s transparent yarn about the young man’s health.
When we were through breakfast, I went forward to relieve O’Toole. I found, then, that by keeping what I had heard to myself, my feelings were completely changed toward young Brown. I now felt as though I were his protector. This sudden turn of affairs caused such a revulsion from the prejudice I had against him—when I thought of that sweet, upturned face—that if he had stepped on board that minute I would have given him a welcome that would probably have astonished him.
I merely mention these senseless facts to show how even the best of us—if I may be allowed to give myself my own rating—are affected by trifling matters without realizing it.
That night we found that, by a little pushing, we would be steved and ready to sail by the next afternoon or following morning. The skipper then made arrangements to have a crew ready.