"Why, I sucked my thumbs like a polar bear in its winter quarters."
And as he spoke the stranger put his two thumbs into his mouth, and extraordinary thumbs they were, too, for each would have filled an ordinary man's mouth.
"These," said the stranger, pulling them out, and gazing at them wistfully, and with a deep sigh he continued,—
"These were thumbs at one time; but they are nothing now to what they were."
"Confound the binnacle!" muttered the captain to himself, and then he added, aloud,—
"It's cheap living, however; but where are you going to, and why did you come aboard?"
"I wanted a cheap cruise, and I am going there and back."
"Why, that's where we are going," said the captain.
"Then we are brothers," exclaimed the stranger, hopping off the water-cask like a kangaroo, and bounding towards the captain, holding out his hand as though he would have shaken hands with him.
"No, no," said the captain; "I can't do it."