“‘Well I never! do they swallow them right down?’
“‘I guess they do, tank, shank, and flank, at one gulp.’
“‘Why how in the world do they ever get—’ but she don’t finish the sentence, for the silk man, cotten man, iron man, or trinket man, which ever is nearest, says, ‘There is a ship on the lee-bow.’ He says that because it sounds sailor-like, but it happens to be the weather-bow, and you have seen her an hour before.
“‘Can you make her out?’ sais he; that’s another sea tarm he has picked up; he will talk like a horse-marine at last.
“‘Yes,’ sais you, ‘she is a Quang-Tonger.’
“‘A Quang-Tonger?’ sais the gall, and before the old coon has disgested that hard word, she asks, ‘what in natur is that?’
“‘Why, Miss, Quang-Tong is a province of China, and Canton is the capital; all the vessels at Canton are called Quang-Tongers, but strangers call them Chinese Junks. Now, Miss, you have seen two new things to-day, a bottle-nosed porpoise and—’
“‘Was that a bottle-nosed porpoise, Sir? why you don’t say so! why, how you talk, why do they call them bottle-noses?’
“‘Because, Miss, they make what is called velvet corks out of their snouts. They are reckoned the best corks in the world. And then, you have seen a Chinese Junk?’
“‘A Chinese Junk,’ sais the astonished trinket man. ‘Well I vow! a Chinese Junk, do tell!’ and one gall calls Jeremiah Dodge, and the other her father and her sister, Mary Anne Matilda Jane, to come and see the Chinese Junk, and all the passengers rush to the other side, and say, ‘whare, whare,’ and the two discoverers say, ‘there, there;’ and you walk across the deck and take one of the evacuated seats you have been longin’ for; and as you pass you give a wink to the officer of the watch, who puts his tongue in his cheek as a token of approbation, and you begin to read again, as you fancy, in peace.