tention of
Diddimus. The big tortoise-shell ran from him no longer; but he
utterly refused to be petted. He now lay on the couch and blinked with
a bored manner at the captain.

If Louise came near him he purred loudly, putting out a hooked claw to
catch her skirt and stop her, and so get his head rubbed. But if Cap'n
Amazon undertook any familiarities, Diddimus arose in dignified silence
and changed his place or left the room.

"Does beat all," the Captain said reflectively, reaching for his
knitting, "what notions dumb critters get. We had a black man and a
black dog with us aboard the fo'master _Sally S. Stern_ when I was
master, out o' Baltimore for Chilean ports. Bill was the blackest
negro, I b'lieve, I ever see. You couldn't see him in the dark with
his mouth and eyes both shut. And that Newfoundland of his was just as
black and his coat just as kinky as Bill's wool. The crew called 'em
the two Snowballs."

"What notion did the dog take, Uncle Amazon?" Louise asked as he
halted. Sometimes he required a little urging to "get going." But not
much.

"Why, no matter what Bill did around the deck, or below, or overside,
or what not, the dog never seemed to pay much attention to him. But
the minute Bill started aloft that dog began to cry--whine and
bark--and try to climb the shrouds after that nigger. Land sakes, you
never in your life saw such actions! Got so we had to chain the dog
Snowball whenever it came on to blow, for there's a consarned lot o'
reefin' down and hoistin' sail on one o' them big fo'masters. The
skipper't keeps his job on a ship like the _Sally S. Stern_ must get
steamboat speed out o' her.

"So, 'twas 'all hands to stations!' sometimes three and four times in a
watch. Owners ain't overlib'ral in matter of crew nowadays. Think
because there's a donkey-engine on deck and a riggin' to hoist your big
sails, ye don't re'lly need men for'ard at all.

"That v'y'ge out in pertic'lar I remember that there was two weeks on a
stretch that not a soul aboard had more'n an hour's undisturbed sleep.
And that dog! Poor brute, I guess he thought Bill was goin' to heaven
and leavin' him behind ev'ry time the nigger started for the masthead.

"I most always," continued Cap'n Amazon, "seen to it myself that the
dog was chained when Bill was likely to go aloft. I liked that dog.
He was a gentleman, if he was black. And Bill was a good seaman, and
with a short tongue. The dog was about the