ory and far more spacious than I had expected. But
when I peeped into the captain's room I was amazed at its comfort. When
I say that it opened directly into a bath-room, and that, among other
things, it was furnished with a big brass bed such as one would never
suspect to find at sea, I have said enough.

Naturally, I had resolved that the bath-room and the big brass bed should
be mine. When I asked the agents to arrange with the captain they seemed
non-committal and uncomfortable. "I don't know in the least what it is
worth," I said. "And I don't care. Whether it costs one hundred and
fifty dollars or five hundred, I must have those quarters."

Harrison and Gray, the agents, debated silently with each other and
scarcely thought Captain West would see his way to the arrangement. "Then
he is the first sea captain I ever heard of that wouldn't," I asserted
confidently. "Why, the captains of all the Atlantic liners regularly
sell their quarters."

"But Captain West is not the captain of an Atlantic liner," Mr. Harrison
observed gently.

"Remember, I am to be on that ship many a month," I retorted. "Why,
heavens, bid him up to a thousand if necessary."

"We'll try," said Mr. Gray, "but we warn you not to place too much
dependence on our efforts. Captain West is in Searsport at the present
time, and we will write him to-day."

To my astonishment Mr. Gray called me up several days later to inform me
that Captain West had declined my offer. "Did you offer him up to a
thousand?" I demanded. "What did he say?"

"He regretted that he was unable to concede what you asked," Mr. Gray
replied.

A day later I received a letter from Captain West. The writing and the
wording were old-fashioned and formal. He regretted not having yet met
me, and assured me that he would see personally that my quarters were
made comfortable. For that matter he had already dispatched orders to
Mr. Pike, the first mate of the _Elsinore_, to knock out the partition
between my state-room and the spare state-room adjoining. Further--and
here is where my dislike for Captain West began--he informed me that if,
when once well at sea, I should find myself dissatisfied, he would
gladly, in that case, exchange quarters with me.

Of course, after such a rebuff, I knew that no circumstance could ever
persuade me to occupy Captain West's brass bed. And it was this Captain
Nathaniel West, whom I had not yet met, who had now kept me freezing o