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Though Snowball's morality was far from being immaculate, there was one virtue which he was not wanting, gratitude. But for the possession of this, he might have been alone upon the raft, and, perhaps, less caring in what direction the winds and waves might carry him. As it was, his sole thought and anxiety was about his little companion, whose safety was as dear to him as his own.
Snowball's original idea in striking out in pursuit of the Catamaran was to get aboard; and, by making a better use of the steering-oar than he had hitherto done, to bring the craft back within saving distance of the exhausted swimmer. Confident in his natatory powers, he had at first believed this feat to be not only possible, but probable and easy.
For all that, there was a certain shyness combined with great swiftness in its motion, a skulking in its attitudes: as Snowball's speech had already declared, a truculent, trap-like expression in its quick watchful eyes, that told of an animal whose whole existence was passed in the pursuit of prey.
At the termination of that time, an exclamatory phrase, escaping from his lips, proclaimed the discovery of some object that, to his mind, accounted for the odd behaviour of the albacores. "De frigate-bird!" was the phrase that came mutteringly from between Snowball's teeth. "Ya, ya, dar am two ob dem, de cock an' hen, I s'pose. Dat 'counts for de scariness of dese hya fish.
Perch after perch he pulled out quietly, and he kept Snowball busy stringing them until he had five on the string. The boy on the rock was watching him and so was the boy near him furtively while Snowball's admiration was won completely, and he grinned and gurgled his delight, until Dan lost his temper again and spoke to him sharply. Dan did not like to be beaten at anything.
The case is like a snowball's growth, due as it is to the distribution of the snow on the one hand, and to the successive pushes of the boys on the other, with these factors co-determining each other incessantly. The most fateful point of difference between being a rationalist and being a pragmatist is now fully in sight.
A score of such conflicting shouts assailed Gibbie as he approached, and he replied to them all with the light of his countenance. When they arrived at the door, they found a difficulty waiting them: the water was now so high that Snowball's head rose above the lintel; and, though all animals can swim, they do not all know how to dive. A tumult of suggestions immediately broke out.
Snowball's dread of the Pandora's people might not have been so acute, but for a certain circumstance that came before his mind. He had been made aware, by sundry ill-usage he had received from the slaver's captain and mate, just previous to the climax of the catastrophe, that he was himself regarded as the author of it.
But the flesh of the albacore was raw; while that of Snowball's stock, if not cooked, was at least cured; and this, in the opinion of the Catamarans, rendered it more palatable.
The sailor swam in silence, the cries of the child, now more distant, were growing feebler and feebler; while little William Snowball's only companion upon the raft was too much absorbed in the scene and its issue to allow even a breath to escape him.
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