e
he helped us little or nothing, seemed (as he declared himself to be)
constantly dog-tired. His momentary ferocity, when he fastened on my
bleeding forearm, had been a gust only, and after it he sank deeper
and deeper into drowsiness. As for Santa--frankly, I don't know.
They tell us that women sleep more lightly than men, and can endure
suffering far more patiently--which some explain by saying that their
nerves are less sensitive to pain, and (I suppose therefore) to
pleasure. But I don't know: I have never studied the subject.
She sat very quiet, sometimes for hours together, without stirring;
but she took very little actual sleep.

"The end of Jarvis and Prout was one of those inhuman, ghastly farces
which, as I've said, break the spell of a sudden and are worse than
the tragedy itself. They had struck up a quaint, almost canine
friendship--Yes, that's the word, though I can't stop to explain what
I mean by it more than by saying that they would sit together by the
hour, like two dogs before a fire. The odd thing about it was that
they had twice been shipwrecked before on the coast; and had come
through the double experience respecting one another as capable
seamen but forming no attachment until--But it's ludicrous past
guessing. On the second day in the boat it was discovered by a
chance word that they had a common acquaintance in 'Frisco: and he
wasn't much of a friend either. I never heard his name right and
full, and I doubt if they knew it. They called him Uncle Tibe, and I
gathered from their earlier conversations that he was a Jewish dealer
in marine stores and a money-lender; of mature years; and afflicted
with a chronic and most Christian thirst, which he alleviated by
methods derived from the earliest patriarchs of his race. Of these
his favourite was to attach himself to some young seaman with money
in his pocket and, having insinuated concurrently the undoubted
truths that he possessed great wealth but was averse to spending it
(even on Scotch 'smokes'), to insinuate further that the victim had
to an extraordinary degree crept into the affections of a childless
old man,--yea, might hope indeed, by attentions which in practice
worked out to ordering whisky and adding 'Make it two,' to inherit
his real and personal estate.

"Silly as you like!--But the discovery that each had been hoaxed by
Uncle Tibe, and the comparison of their foolish experiences, with
reported tales of the dupes yet more