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- 5046
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4983
- text
- found ourselves returning home. Nearly all of them had made frequent
voyages to Liverpool.
Not long after anchoring, several boats came off; and from one of them
stept a neatly-dressed and very respectable-looking woman, some thirty
years of age, I should think, carrying a bundle. Coming forward among
the sailors, she inquired for Max the Dutchman, who immediately was
forthcoming, and saluted her by the mellifluous appellation of _Sally._
Now during the passage, Max in discoursing to me of Liverpool, had
often assured me, that that city had the honor of containing a spouse
of his; and that in all probability, I would have the pleasure of
seeing her. But having heard a good many stories about the bigamies of
seamen, and their having wives and sweethearts in every port, the round
world over; and having been an eye-witness to a nuptial parting between
this very Max and a lady in New York; I put down this relation of his,
for what I thought it might reasonably be worth. What was my
astonishment, therefore, to see this really decent, civil woman coming
with a neat parcel of Max’s shore clothes, all washed, plaited, and
ironed, and ready to put on at a moment’s warning.
They stood apart a few moments giving loose to those transports of
pleasure, which always take place, I suppose, between man and wife
after long separations.
At last, after many earnest inquiries as to how he had behaved himself
in New York; and concerning the state of his wardrobe; and going down
into the forecastle, and inspecting it in person, Sally departed;
having exchanged her bundle of clean clothes for a bundle of soiled
ones, and this was precisely what the New York wife had done for Max,
not thirty days previous.
So long as we laid in port, Sally visited the Highlander daily; and
approved herself a neat and expeditious getter-up of duck frocks and
trowsers, a capital tailoress, and as far as I could see, a very
well-behaved, discreet, and reputable woman.
But from all I had seen of her, I should suppose Meg, the New York
wife, to have been equally well-behaved, discreet, and reputable; and
equally devoted to the keeping in good order Max’s wardrobe.
And when we left England at last, Sally bade Max good-by, just as Meg
had done; and when we arrived at New York, Meg greeted Max precisely as
Sally had greeted him in Liverpool. Indeed, a pair of more amiable
wives never belonged to one man; they never quarreled, or had so much
as a difference of any kind; the whole broad Atlantic being between
them; and Max was equally polite and civil to both. For many years, he
had been going Liverpool and New York voyages, plying between wife and
wife with great regularity, and sure of receiving a hearty domestic
welcome on either side of the ocean.
Thinking this conduct of his, however, altogether wrong and every way
immoral, I once ventured to express to him my opinion on the subject.
But I never did so again. He turned round on me, very savagely; and
after rating me soundly for meddling in concerns not my own, concluded
by asking me triumphantly, whether _old King Sol,_ as he called the son
of David, did not have a whole frigate-full of wives; and that being
the case, whether he, a poor sailor, did not have just as good a right
to have two? “What was not wrong then, is right now,” said Max; “so,
mind your eye, Buttons, or I’ll crack your pepper-box for you!”
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