"
"Gentlemen, we will not forget our duty," returned the captain; "we are
but a small family, and so much the greater need that we should prove a
jolly one. Mr. Effingham, I hope we are to have the honour of your company
at 'sweethearts and wives.'"
Mr. Effingham had no wife, and the invitation coming under such peculiar
circumstances, produced a pang that Eve, who felt his arm tremble, well
understood. She mildly intimated her intention to go below however; the
whole party followed, and lucky it was for the captain's entertainment
that she quitted the deck, as few would otherwise have been present at it.
By pressing the passengers to favour him with their company, he succeeded
in the course of a few minutes in getting all the gentlemen seated at the
cabin-table, with a glass of delicious punch before each man.
"Mr. Saunders may not be a conjuror or a mathematician, gentlemen," cried
Captain Truck, as he ladled out the beverage; "but he understands the
philosophy of sweet and sour, strong and weak; and I will venture to
praise his liquor without tasting it. Well, gentlemen, there are
better-rigged ships on the ocean than this of ours; but there are few with
more comfortable cabins, or stouter hulls, or better company. Please God
we can get a few sticks aloft again, now that we are quit of our
troublesome shadow, I think I may flatter myself with a reasonable hope of
landing you, that do me the honour to stand by me, in New York, in less
time than a common drogger would make the passage, with his legs and arms.
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