But Captain Crowe exerted a parental authority over his nephew, saying, "Avast, Tom, avast! Snug's the word we'll have no boarding, d'ye see. Haul forward thy chair again, take thy berth, and proceed with thy story in a direct course, without yawing like a Dutch yanky." Tom, thus tutored, recollected himself, resumed his seat, and, after some pause, plunged at once into the current of narration.

But woe is me for the voices, male and female, that you so often hear in New England, the harsh, strident voices, the monotonous, cranky, yanky, filing, rasping voices, without modulation, all rise and no fall, a monotonous discord, no soul, no feeling, and no counterfeit of it, loud, positive, angular, and awful.