- end_line
- 1990
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1956
- text
- previously associated with persons of a very discreet life, so that
there was little opportunity to magnify myself, by comparing myself
with my neighbors.
Thinking that my superiority to him in a moral way might sit uneasily
upon this sailor, I thought it would soften the matter down by giving
him a chance to show his own superiority to me, in a minor thing; for I
was far from being vain and conceited.
Having observed that at certain intervals a little bell was rung on the
quarter-deck by the man at the wheel; and that as soon as it was heard,
some one of the sailors forward struck a large bell which hung on the
forecastle; and having observed that how many times soever the man
astern rang his bell, the man forward struck his—tit for tat,—I
inquired of this Floating Chapel sailor, what all this ringing meant;
and whether, as the big bell hung right over the scuttle that went down
to the place where the watch below were sleeping, such a ringing every
little while would not tend to disturb them and beget unpleasant
dreams; and in asking these questions I was particular to address him
in a civil and condescending way, so as to show him very plainly that I
did not deem myself one whit better than he was, that is, taking all
things together, and not going into particulars. But to my great
surprise and mortification, he in the rudest land of manner laughed
aloud in my face, and called me a “Jimmy Dux,” though that was not my
real name, and he must have known it; and also the “son of a farmer,”
though as I have previously related, my father was a great merchant and
French importer in Broad-street in New York. And then he began to laugh
and joke about me, with the other sailors, till they all got round me,
and if I had not felt so terribly angry, I should certainly have felt
very much like a fool. But my being so angry prevented me from feeling
foolish, which is very lucky for people in a passion.
- title
- Chunk 4