Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
As Orion tried to scramble up, the skipper of the Seamew made another pass at him with the oar, and the fellow fell again. "Don't hit me! Don't hit me again, Tunis! Remember I'm your cousin. I I haven't done a thing true an' honest, I haven't!" The listeners gathered closer. Tunis Latham's face displayed such rage that the Portygees expected him to continue his attack with the oar.
"Get a girl from the port." "Huh! One o' them Portygees? They're as dirty and useless in the kitchen as their men folks are aboard ship." "Oh, they are not all like that!" objected the captain of the Seamew. "I've got a good crew of 'em aboard my schooner." "You think so. Wait till you get in a jam. And the men ain't so bad as the gals. All hussies." "I don't know, then, what you'll do."
"His mother says Tony is scared to sail again with the Seamew. Some Portygee foolishness." "I told you them Portygees warn't worth the grease they sop their bread in," declared Cap'n Ira. The two on the rear seat of the carryall paid no attention to this conversation. "I'm real pleased," said the old woman, "that you are going to dinner with Lucretia Latham, Ida May.
"That is the daughter of Pareta, who brought up your trunk when you came here, Ida May," said Tunis carelessly. "But do you see who the man is?" she said, with some surprise. "It is your cousin." "'Rion? So it is. Well," he added rather scornfully, "no accounting for tastes. She's a decent-enough girl, I guess, but we don't mix much with the Portygees.
"They can pull ropes when you tell 'em to," he said. "Leastways, when it comes to brains, I reckon they'll stack up better'n them Portygees you used to have." "I never pretended that them Portygees had any brains at all," said the Cap'n, grimly. "They come aboard without brains, and I took a belayin'-pin and batted brains into 'em. I can't do that to these critters here.
"Portygees!" he muttered over and over. "There's men that knows winds, tides, rocks, shoals, currents, compass, and riggin' that don't know Portygees. It takes a master mariner to know Portygees. It takes Portygees to know a master mariner. They know the language. They know the style. They get the idee by the way he looks at 'em. It's what he says and the way he says it. Second mates ain't got it.
"How about you, Zebedee?" demanded the captain of the Seamew. "I am not afraid of any foolish talk, anyway, Captain Latham. Had I been I wouldn't have applied for the berth. I had heard enough about it. Eunez Pareta, I believe, talked too much to the Portygees, and that is why you couldn't keep them. But I'm not a Portygee." "I'll say you're not," agreed Tunis.
Them Portygees well, there's no figuring on what they will do." "I can see you are bent on making them do something that will raise trouble," Newbegin said, shaking his head once more. "What do you expect? You know the Seamew is hoodooed. Huh! Seamew! That ain't no more her rightful name than it is mine." "I wouldn't say that." "I would!" snapped 'Rion. "She's the Marlin B., out o' Salem.
When 'Rion Latham slipped aboard finally, half the loading of the cargo had been accomplished. Tunis himself was keeping tally. The skipper beckoned his cousin to him. "'Rion," he said, "you certainly are about as useless a fellow as I ever had anything to do with. These Portygees who have left me in the lurch have some excuse for their actions. They are ignorant and superstitious.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking