"What made you leave the island?" I inquired.
"Bekase him not de same kind of place, sir, as before—de niggers grow so d—— imperant."
"But you must find Copenhagen very cold and uncomfortable," I replied; "and surely impudence in one's own country is more tolerable than discomfort and winter here."
"No, sir," answered Joe, all the soul of his great namesake, Washington, beaming through his eyes; "me no tollumrate imperance; one imperant raskill make me blood cold more dan de winter do. Jamaikee no de place for de man of eddumcashum."
"In fact, you left it in disgust," I suggested.
"Suttinlee, sir," replied Joe; then seeming anxious to forget Jamaica, and every thing connected with it, he said,
"Me hope you like you dinner, gentlemen; and will disgest him," he continued.
"I hope we shall digest it," I answered; "but there was vinegar enough to stop any human creature's growth."
"Me said so, sir!" exclaimed Joe; "me tell Monsieur Sangnette so; dem French cooks, debilish fond of souring deir tings. Me nebber widout um stomick ache; d— de feller!" and Joe hurried out of the room, before his anger had cooled, to inform M. Sangnette how dissatisfied we were with the dinner, and what torture, similar to his own, we should soon undergo.
Before ten o'clock I was in my berth, listening to the rain pattering on the deck, the trickling noise of which conveyed to my mind, as I lay in my warm bed, an absorbing feeling of comfort, which can only be conceived by those who have a roof to shelter their heads from the pitiless storm. I remained awake for some hours; and, beside the falling of the rain, and the sharp bubbling sound of its big drops as they fell into the sea close to the vessel's side, the night was so still, that I could hear the sentinels in the citadel of Fredrikshavn demanding the pass-word, as the officer went his rounds. When our watch, too, struck the hour, I could follow the echo of the bell, rising and sinking, half way across the Sound.