two Nova Scotia girls--different times.
I'd roll round town, givin' 'em to understand I was master, take 'em
out drivin' in a buggy Sunday evenin', makin' a fool o' meself fine.
When the crash came--oh, Mr. McAlnwick, make use of your advantages
now yer're at sea!--when the crash came, we were just ready to sail,
an' I stayed by the ship. But next time 'twould be the same. I
couldn't be acquainted with a girl for a week without proposin'
matrimony! Mr. McAlnwick, ye mustn't laugh. 'Tis the truth. Even
now--but why talk? Ye know my sympathetic nature. But this seems to be
serious. So she's the barmaid at the Stormy Petrel, is she? Humph!"

"His brains must be addled," I observe, "not to see----"

"Ah! but ye're young, Mr. McAlnwick! _That's_ no hindrance in the
worrld to--to such as him. _Oh_, dear no!"

"Then such as he have a very low standard of morality."

"Mr. McAlnwick, now listen. When ye've been sent to sea at twelve year
old as apprentice, an' ploughed the oceans of the worrld for five
years in the foc'sle, when ye've been bullied an' damned by fifty
different skippers on fifty different trades as third and second mate,
when ye've split yer head studyin' for yer ticket, when ye've got it
and ye're glad to go second mate at seven pounds ten a month, when ye
see men o' less merit promoted because they marry skippers' daughters
while you are walkin' the bridge--what 'ud ye do?"

"I don't know, mister." I am taken aback by the velocity of the
question, by the Mate's earnestness.

"Ye'd turn callous or religious, or go mad! Ye see, Mr. McAlnwick,
there's a lot ye miss, though ye won't admit it. Ye come to sea and ye
meet the cloth, but ye don't realise their trainin'. Ye laugh at us
for our queer ways, such as never walkin' on the poop over the
Skipper's head, never askin' for another helpin', never arguin' the
point, an' such like. But consider that man's trainin'! Ye cannot?
Ye've been brought up ashore, ye've had opportunities for studyin' and
conversin' with edyecated people, an' ye're frettin' for some young
lady, as I can see--don't deny it, I saw Postie bring the letter--and
ye wouldn't touch the likes o' _this_ with a pair o' tongs. But with
Mr. Hammerton 'tis different, do ye not see?"

"Yes, I see, a little. But you yourself, now----"

"Me? Oh, 'twas a special providence preserved me, Mr. McAlnwick. I was
waitin' for a command at the time, and I was unable to get out o' the
bargain. But ye know my