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- 10129
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z
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- 10065
- text
- But I was surprised, that one who had certainly seen much of life,
should evince such an incredible ignorance of what was wholly
inadmissible in a person situated as he was. But perhaps his
familiarity with lofty life, only the less qualified him for
understanding the other extreme. Will you believe me, this Bury blade
once came on deck in a brocaded dressing-gown, embroidered slippers,
and tasseled smoking-cap, to stand his morning watch.
As soon as I beheld him thus arrayed, a suspicion, which had previously
crossed my mind, again recurred, and I almost vowed to myself that,
spite his protestations, Harry Bolton never could have been at sea
before, even as a _Guinea-pig_ in an Indiaman; for the slightest
acquaintance with the sea-life and sailors, should have prevented him,
it would seem, from enacting this folly.
“Who’s that Chinese mandarin?” cried the mate, who had made voyages to
Canton. “Look you, my fine fellow, douse that mainsail now, and furl it
in a trice.”
“Sir?” said Harry, starting back. “Is not this the morning watch, and
is not mine a morning gown?”
But though, in my refined friend’s estimation, nothing could be more
appropriate; in the mate’s, it was the most monstrous of incongruities;
and the offensive gown and cap were removed.
“It is too bad!” exclaimed Harry to me; “I meant to lounge away the
watch in that gown until coffee time;—and I suppose your Hottentot of a
mate won’t permit a gentleman to smoke his Turkish pipe of a morning;
but by gad, I’ll wear straps to my pantaloons to spite him!”
Oh! that was the rock on which you split, poor Harry! Incensed at the
want of polite refinement in the mates and crew, Harry, in a pet and
pique, only determined to provoke them the more; and the storm of
indignation he raised very soon overwhelmed him.
The sailors took a special spite to his chest, a large mahogany one,
which he had had made to order at a furniture warehouse. It was
ornamented with brass screw-heads, and other devices; and was well
filled with those articles of the wardrobe in which Harry had sported
through a London season; for the various vests and pantaloons he had
sold in Liverpool, when in want of money, had not materially lessened
his extensive stock.
It was curious to listen to the various hints and opinings thrown out
by the sailors at the occasional glimpses they had of this collection
of silks, velvets, broadcloths, and satins. I do not know exactly what
they thought Harry had been; but they seemed unanimous in believing
that, by abandoning his country, Harry had left more room for the
gamblers. Jackson even asked him to lift up the lower hem of his
browsers, to test the color of his calves.
It is a noteworthy circumstance, that whenever a slender made youth, of
easy manners and polite address happens to form one of a ship’s
company, the sailors almost invariably impute his sea-going to an
irresistible necessity of decamping from terra-firma in order to evade
the constables.
These white-fingered gentry must be light-fingered too, they say to
themselves, or they would not be after putting their hands into our
tar. What else can bring them to sea?
Cogent and conclusive this; and thus Harry, from the very beginning,
was put down for a very equivocal character.
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