Digital heart book

"Two years of this, and comfortable quarters to live
in, kind of shake the grit out of a man," the captain
remarked; "can't make out to be happy anywhere else. A
townie of mine was lost down this way, in a coalship
that took fire at sea. He struck the beach somewhere
in the Navigators; and he wrote to me that when he left
the place it would be feet first. He's well off, too,
and his father owns some coasting craft Down East; but
Billy prefers the beach, and hot rolls off the bread-
fruit trees."
A voice told me I was on the same track as Billy. But
when was this? Our outward track in the NORAH
CREINA lay well to the northward; and perhaps it is
but the impression of a few pet days which I have
unconsciously spread longer, or perhaps the feeling
grew upon me later, in the run to Honolulu. One thing
I am sure: it was before I had ever seen an island
worthy of the name that I must date my loyalty to the
South Seas. The blank sea itself grew desirable under
such skies; and wherever the trade-wind blows I know no
better country than a schooner's deck.


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