his disquieting response:

"'Tis none o' my business."

'Twould have been logical had he asked me: "An', Dannie, lad, what's a
gentleman?" But this he never did; and I think, regarding the thing
from this distance, that he was himself unable to frame the
definition, so that, of course, I never could be taught it. But he was
diligent in pursuit of this knowledge; he sat with open ears in those
exclusive tap-rooms where "the big bugs t' St. John's" (as he called
them) congregated; indeed, the little gold watch by which Skipper Tom
Bull's suspicion had been excited at the Anchor and Chain came to me
immediately after the Commissioner of This had remarked to the
Commissioner of That, within my uncle's hearing--this at the Gold
Bullet over a bottle of Long Tom--that a watch of modest proportions
was the watch for a gentleman to wear (my other watches had been
chosen with an opposite idea). And my uncle, too (of which anon), held
in high regard that somewhat questionable light of morality and
deportment whom he was used to calling ol' Skipper Chesterfield. But
"What is a gentleman?" was omitted from my catechism.

"An' is this ol' Nicholas Top a liar?" says my uncle.

"No, sir."

"Is he a thief?"

"No, sir."

"Smuggler?"

"No, sir."

"Have he ever been mixed up in burglary, murder, arson, barratry,
piracy, fish stealin', or speckalation?"

"No, sir."

To indicate his utter detachment from personal interest in the
question to follow, my uncle would wave his dilapidated hand, as
though leaving me free to answer as I would, which by no means was I.

"An' of how much," says he, "would he rob his neighbor that he might
prosper?"

'Twas now time for me to turn loud and indignant, as I had been
taught. Thus: my head must shoot out in truculent fashion, my brows
bend, my lips curl away from my teeth like a snarling dog's, my eyes
glare; and I must let my small body shake with explosive rage, in
imitation of my uncle, while I brought the table a thwack with all my
force, shouting:

"Not a damn copper!"

"Good!" says my uncle, placidly. "You done that very well, Dannie, for
a lad. You fetched out the damn quite noisy an' agreeable. Now," says
he, "is Nicholas Top a rascal?"

'Twas here we had trouble; in the beginning, when this learning was
undertaken, I must be whipped to answer as he would have me. Ay, and
many a night have I gone sore to bed for my perversity, for in respect
to obedience his severity was unm