Down they trooped, accordingly,
into the cabin; and stood eyeing the ceiling or the
floor, the picture of sheepish embarrassment, and with
a common air of wanting to expectorate and not quite
daring. In admirable contrast stood the Chinese cook,
easy, dignified, set apart by spotless raiment, the
hidalgo of the seas.
I daresay you never had occasion to assist at the farce
which followed. Our shipping laws in the United States
(thanks to the inimitable Dana) are conceived in a
spirit of paternal stringency, and proceed throughout
on the hypothesis that poor Jack is an imbecile, and
the other parties to the contract, rogues and ruffians.
A long and wordy paper of precautions, a fo'c's'le bill
of rights, must be read separately to each man. I had
now the benefit of hearing it five times in brisk
succession; and you would suppose I was acquainted with
its contents. But the commissioner (worthy man) spends
his days in doing little else; and when we bear in mind
the parallel case of the irreverent curate, we need not
be surprised that he took the passage TEMPO
PRESTISSIMO, in one roulade of gabble--that I, with
the trained attention of an educated man, could gather
but a fraction of its import--and the sailors nothing.
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