"
"If not, Mr. Dodge," put in the captain, "like other patriots, you must
trust to posterity to do you justice. The joints and sinews are so
differently constructed in different men, that one never knows exactly how
to calculate on speed; but this much I will make affidavit to, if you wish
it, on reaching home, and that is, that a better messenger could not be
found than Mr. Steadfast Dodge, for a man in a hurry. Sir George
Templemore, we have had but a few of your opinions since you came out on
this expedition, and I should be gratified to hear your sentiments
concerning the Arabs, and any thing else that may suggest itself at
the moment."
"Oh, captain! I think the wretches odiously dirty, and judging from
appearances, I should say sadly deficient in comforts."
"In the way of breeches in particular; for I am inclined to think, Sir
George, you are master of more than are to be found in their whole nation.
Well, gentlemen, one must certainly travel who wishes to see the world;
but for this sheer down here upon the coast of Africa, neither of us might
have ever known how an Arab lives, and what a nimble wrecker he makes. For
my own part, if the choice lay between filling the office of Jemmy Ducks,
on board the Montauk, and that of sheik in this tribe, I should, as we say
in America, Mr.
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