- end_line
- 2762
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2710
- text
- dress myself as neatly as I could. I put on a white shirt in place of
my red one, and got into a pair of cloth trowsers instead of my duck
ones, and put on my new pumps, and then carefully brushing my
shooting-jacket, I put that on over all, so that upon the whole, I made
quite a genteel figure, at least for a forecastle, though I would not
have looked so well in a drawing-room.
When the sailors saw me thus employed, they did not know what to make
of it, and wanted to know whether I was dressing to go ashore; I told
them no, for we were then out of sight of mind; but that I was going to
pay my respects to the captain. Upon which they all laughed and
shouted, as if I were a simpleton; though there seemed nothing so very
simple in going to make an evening call upon a friend. When some of
them tried to dissuade me, saying I was green and raw; but Jackson, who
sat looking on, cried out, with a hideous grin, “Let him go, let him
go, men—he’s a nice boy. Let him go; the captain has some nuts and
raisins for him.” And so he was going on, when one of his violent fits
of coughing seized him, and he almost choked.
As I was about leaving the forecastle, I happened to look at my hands,
and seeing them stained all over of a deep yellow, for that morning the
mate had set me to tarring some strips of canvas for the rigging I
thought it would never do to present myself before a gentleman that
way; so for want of lads, I slipped on a pair of woolen mittens, which
my mother had knit for me to carry to sea. As I was putting them on,
Jackson asked me whether he shouldn’t call a carriage; and another bade
me not forget to present his best respects to the skipper. I left them
all tittering, and coming on deck was passing the cook-house, when the
old cook called after me, saying I had forgot my cane.
But I did not heed their impudence, and was walking straight toward the
cabin-door on the quarter-deck, when the chief mate met me. I touched
my hat, and was passing him, when, after staring at me till I thought
his eyes would burst out, he all at once caught me by the collar, and
with a voice of thunder, wanted to know what I meant by playing such
tricks aboard a ship that he was mate of? I told him to let go of me,
or I would complain to my friend the captain, whom I intended to visit
that evening. Upon this he gave me such a whirl round, that I thought
the Gulf Stream was in my head; and then shoved me forward, roaring out
I know not what. Meanwhile the sailors were all standing round the
windlass looking aft, mightily tickled.
Seeing I could not effect my object that night, I thought it best to
defer it for the present; and returning among the sailors, Jackson
asked me how I had found the captain, and whether the next time I went,
I would not take a friend along and introduce him.
The upshot of this business was, that before I went to sleep that
night, I felt well satisfied that it was not customary for sailors to
call on the captain in the cabin; and I began to have an inkling of the
fact, that I had acted like a fool; but it all arose from my ignorance
of sea usages.
- title
- Chunk 2