"
"I don't know that; I have reflected coolly in the matter, after I got
over my mortification; and I think we should have been flogged, had we
attacked the French at sea. Your own plan was better, and capitally
carried out. Harkee, Miles, this much will I do, and not a jot
more. You are bound to the island, I take it for granted, to pick up
odds and ends; and then you sail for Canton?"
"Precisely--I am glad you approve of it, as you must by seeing into it
so readily."
"Well, at the island, fill up the schooner with such articles as will
be of no use at Canton. Let her take in the copper, the English goods,
and the like of that; and I will carry her home, while you can pursue
the v'y'ge in the ship, as you alone have a right to do."
No arguments of mine could turn Marble from his resolution. I fought
him all day on the subject, and at night he was put in command of the
"Pretty Poll," with our old second-mate for his first officer.
CHAPTER XIX.
"Thou shalt seek the beach of sand,
Where the water bounds the elfin land;
Thou shalt watch the oozy brine
Till the sturgeon leaps in the light moonshine."
DRAKE.
There is but a word to say of the whaler. We spoke her, of course, and
parted, leaving her her boat. She passed half an hour, close to us,
and then went after her whale.
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