In appearance
he was tall, light of weight, bold and high-bred of
feature, dusky-haired, and with a face of a clean even
brown--the ornament of outdoor men. Seated in a chair,
you might have passed him off for a baronet or a
military officer; but let him rise, and it was
Fo'c's'le Jack that came rolling toward you, crab-like;
let him but open his lips, and it was Fo'c's'le Jack
that piped and drawled his ungrammatical gibberish. He
had sailed (among other places) much among the islands;
and after a Cape Horn passage with its snow-squalls and
its frozen sheets, he announced his intention of
"taking a turn among them Kanakas." I thought I should
have lost him soon; but, according to the unwritten
usage of mariners, he had first to dissipate his wages.
"Guess I'll have to paint this town red," was his
hyperbolical expression; for sure no man ever embarked
upon a milder course of dissipation, most of his days
being passed in the little parlour behind Black Tom's
public-house, with a select corps of old particular
acquaintances, all from the South Seas, and all patrons
of a long yarn, a short pipe, and glasses round.
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