"The judge? Was it a
passenger-ship?"
The other stopped buttoning Lemuel's trousers round him to slap
himself on the thigh. "Why, mate! don't you know enough to know what
a _sea voyage_ is? Why, I've been down to the _Island_ for
the last six months! Hain't you never heard it called a sea voyage?
Why, we _always_ come off from a cruise when we git back! You
don't mean to say you never _been_ one?"
"Oh, my goodness!" groaned Lemuel. "Have--have you been in prison?"
"Why, of course."
"Oh, what am I going to do?" whispered the miserable creature to
himself.
The other heard him. "Why, you hain't got to do anything! I'm on the
reform, and you might leave everything layin' around loose, and I
shouldn't touch it. Fact! You ask the ship's chaplain."
He laughed in the midst of his assertions of good resolutions, but
sobered to the full extent, probably, of his face and nature, and
tying Lemuel's cravat on at the glass, he said solemnly, "Mate, it's
all right. I'm on the reform."
XXIII.
Lemuel's friend entered upon his duties with what may also be called
artistic zeal. He showed a masterly touch in managing the elevator
from the first trip. He was ready, cheerful, and obliging; he lacked
nothing but a little more reluctance and a Seaside Library novel to
be a perfect elevator-boy.
The ladies liked him at once; he was so pleasant and talkative, and
so full of pride in Lemuel that they could not help liking him; and
several of them promptly reached that stage of confidence where they
told him, as an old friend of Lemuel's, they thought Lemuel read too
much, and was going to kill himself if he kept on a great deal
longer.
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