If I were not fixed on
God's firm ground, I should think I had passed away and was dreaming
blissfully."
Oh! the fury and hurry around that steamer! Men were toiling without
cessation during all night and all day; one shift relieved another, and
Cassall employed two superintendents instead of one. The way the notion
came to him was this:--he had an abrupt but most essentially pleasant
way of getting into conversation with casual strangers of all ranks,
and he always managed to learn something from them. "Nice smack that on
the stocks," he remarked to a bronzed, blue-eyed man who was standing
alert on a certain quay.
"Yes, sir. That's honest oak. I like that. But that other's not so
honest."
"You mean the steamer?"
"Yes, sir. I don't like the way things goes along. The surveyor's been
down. He and the manager are having champagne together now, and you may
bet there's some skulking work going on in the dark corners. I know the
ocean tramps, sir. Many's the time I've seen the dishonest rivets start
out of 'em like buttons of a woman's bodice if it's too tight. If I was
an owner, and building a vessel, I'd test every join and every rivet
myself. You force a faulty plate into place, and the first time your
vessel gets across a sea she buckles, and there's an end of all."
"You understand shipbuilding?"
"Only a sailor does, sir. He has the peril; the builders have the
money."
"What are you?" "Merchant captain, sir," said the stout man, turning on
the questioner a clear, light blue eye that shone with health and
evident courage.
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