Captain. 'For the sake of Wal'r
drownded in the briny deep, turn to, and histe up something or another,
if able!'
Finding her insensible to this impressive adjuration also, Captain
Cuttle snatched from his breakfast-table a basin of cold water, and
sprinkled some upon her face. Yielding to the urgency of the case, the
Captain then, using his immense hand with extraordinary gentleness,
relieved her of her bonnet, moistened her lips and forehead, put back
her hair, covered her feet with his own coat which he pulled off for
the purpose, patted her hand--so small in his, that he was struck with
wonder when he touched it--and seeing that her eyelids quivered, and
that her lips began to move, continued these restorative applications
with a better heart.
'Cheerily,' said the Captain. 'Cheerily! Stand by, my pretty one, stand
by! There! You're better now. Steady's the word, and steady it is. Keep
her so! Drink a little drop o' this here,' said the Captain. 'There you
are! What cheer now, my pretty, what cheer now?'
At this stage of her recovery, Captain Cuttle, with an imperfect
association of a Watch with a Physician's treatment of a patient, took
his own down from the mantel-shelf, and holding it out on his hook, and
taking Florence's hand in his, looked steadily from one to the other, as
expecting the dial to do something.
'What cheer, my pretty?' said the Captain. 'What cheer now? You've done
her some good, my lad, I believe,' said the Captain, under his
breath, and throwing an approving glance upon his watch. 'Put you
back half-an-hour every morning, and about another quarter towards the
arternoon, and you're a watch as can be ekalled by few and excelled by
none. What cheer, my lady lass!'
'Captain Cuttle! Is it you?' exclaimed Florence, raising herself a
little.
'Yes, yes, my lady lass,' said the Captain, hastily deciding in his own
mind upon the superior elegance of that form of address, as the most
courtly he could think of.
'Is Walter's Uncle here?' asked Florence.
'Here, pretty?' returned the Captain. 'He ain't been here this many a
long day. He ain't been heerd on, since he sheered off arter poor Wal'r.
But,' said the Captain, as a quotation, 'Though lost to sight, to memory
dear, and England, Home, and Beauty!'
'Do you live here?' asked Florence.
'Yes, my lady lass,' returned the Captain.
'Oh, Captain Cuttle!' cried Florence, putting her hands together, and
speaking wildly. 'Save me! keep
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