not know this was surprised she longed to have for a butler so silently and easily did he himself among the frail and dainty silver tom remembered great days on the and the manners of foreign who dined with the officers and long jack being irish supplied the small talk till all were at their ease in the we re here s cabin the fathers took stock of each other behind their cigars knew well enough when he dealt with a man to whom he could not offer money equally well he knew that no money could pay for what had done he kept his own counsel and waited for an opening i n t done anything to your boy or fer your boy make him work a piece an learn him how to handle the yoke said he has twice my boy s head for by the way answered casually what d you calculate to make of your boy a captains courageous removed his cigar and waved it round the cabin dan s jest plain boy an he don t allow me to do any of his he this able little packet when i m laid by he ain t anxious to quit the business i know that ever been west mr troop bin s fer york once in a boat i ve no use for no more dan salt water s good enough fer the troops i ve been most everywhere � in the way o course i can give him all the salt water he s likely to need � till he s a s that i thought you a kinder railroad king told me so when � i was in my we re all apt to be mistaken i fancied perhaps you might know i own a line of � san to � six of em � iron built about seventeen hundred and eighty tons apiece blame that boy he never told i d ha listened to o his an pony carriages he did n t know captains courageous little thing like that slipped his mind i guess no i only � took hold of the blue m � and s old line � this summer where he sat beside the stove great caesar almighty i i ve bin from one end to the other why he went from this very town six year back � no seven � an he s mate on the san now � twenty six days was her time out his sister she s here yet an she reads his letters to my woman an you own the blue m nodded if i d known that i d ha jerked the we re here back to port all on the word perhaps that would n t have been so good for ef i d only known ef he d only said about the line i d ha understood i never stand on my own again � never they re well found he says so i m glad to have a recommend from that captains courageous � quarter s of the san now what i was getting at is to know whether you d lend me dan for a year or two and we see if we can t make a mate of him would you trust him to it s a taking a raw boy � i know a man who did more for me that s look at here i ain t dan special because he s my own flesh an blood know bank ways ain t ways but he t much to learn steer he can � no boy better ef say it � an the rest s in our blood an get but i could wish he war n t so weak on will attend to that he ship as a boy for a voyage or two and then we can put him in the way of doing better suppose you take him in hand this winter and i send for him early in the spring i know the pacific s a long ways off � we troops an dead are all around the earth an the seas thereof but i want you to understand � and i mean this � any time you think you d like to see him tell me and i attend to the t won t cost you a cent captains courageous ef you walk piece with me we go to my house an talk this to my woman i ve bin so crazy in all my it don t seem to me this was like tp be real they went over to troop s eighteen hundred blue trimmed white house with a retired full of in the front yard and a parlor which was a museum of plunder there sat a large woman silent and grave with the dim eyes of those who look long to sea for the return of their beloved addressed himself to her and she gave consent wearily we lose one hundred a year from only mr she said � one hundred boys an men and i ve come so s to hate the sea as if t alive an god never made it fer to anchor on these o yours they go straight out i take it and straight home again as straight as the winds let em and i give a for record passages tea don t improve by being at sea when he little he used to play at keeping store an i had hopes he might follow that up but soon s he could a o captains courageous i knew that were goin to be denied me they re square mother an well found remember what s sister reads you when she his letters i ve never known as told lies but he s too like most of em that use the sea ef dan sees fit mr he can go � fer all 