Digital heart book

He had decided in the negative, arguing that "it would
probably come to nothing; and even if there was a
stink, he had plenty good friends in San Francisco."
And to nothing it came; though it must have very nearly
come to something, for Mr. Nares disappeared
immediately from view, and was scarce less closely
hidden than his captain.
Johnson, on the other hand, I often met. I could never
learn this man's country; and though he himself claimed
to be American, neither his English nor his education
warranted the claim. In all likelihood he was of
Scandinavian birth and blood, long pickled in the
forecastles of English and American ships. It is
possible that, like so many of his race in similar
positions, he had already lost his native tongue. In
mind, at least, he was quite denationalised; thought
only in English--to call it so; and though by nature
one of the mildest, kindest, and most feebly playful of
mankind, he had been so long accustomed to the cruelty
of sea discipline that his stories (told perhaps with a
giggle) would sometimes turn me chill.


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