How different things are in different countries! In Boston,
Massachusetts, at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid thirty
thousand dollars to have a flower named after his wife, and it was not
a big flower either, while "Slocum," which came without the asking,
was bigger than a mangel-wurzel!
I was royally entertained at Moka, as well as at Reduit and other
places--once by seven young ladies, to whom I spoke of my inability to
return their hospitality except in my own poor way of taking them on a
sail in the sloop. "The very thing! The very thing!" they all cried.
"Then please name the time," I said, as meek as Moses. "To-morrow!"
they all cried. "And, aunty, we may go, mayn't we, and we'll be real
good for a whole week afterward, aunty! Say yes, aunty dear!" All this
after saying "To-morrow"; for girls in Mauritius are, after all, the
same as our girls in America; and their dear aunt said "Me, too" about
the same as any really good aunt might say in my own country.
I was then in a quandary, it having recurred to me that on the very
"to-morrow" I was to dine with the harbor-master, Captain Wilson.
However, I said to myself, "The _Spray_ will run out quickly into
rough seas; these young ladies will have _mal de mer_ and a good time,
and I'll get in early enough to be at the dinner, after all." But not
a bit of it. We sailed almost out of sight of Mauritius, and they just
stood up and laughed at seas tumbling aboard, while I was at the helm
making the worst weather of it I could, and spinning yarns to the aunt
about sea-serpents and whales.
Pages:
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217