He thinks very highly of my mother's people."
"I wanter know!"
"He says you are the 'salt of the earth'--that is his very expression."
"Yes. We're pretty average salt, I guess," admitted Cap'n Abe. "I never
seen your father but once or twice. You see, Louise, your mother was a
lot younger'n me an' Am'zon."
"Who?"
"Cap'n Am'zon. Oh! _I_ ain't the only uncle you got," he said, watching
her narrowly. "Cap'n Am'zon Silt----"
"Have I another relative? How jolly!" exclaimed Louise, clasping her
hands.
"Ye-as. Ain't it? Jest," Cap'n Abe said. "Ahem! your father never
spoke of Cap'n Am'zon?".
"I don't believe daddy-prof even knew there was such a person."
"Mebbe not. Mebbe not," Cap'n Abe agreed hastily. "And not to be
wondered at. You see, Am'zon went to sea when he was only jest a boy."
"Did he?"
"Yep. Ran away from home--like most boys done in them days, for their
mothers warn't partial to the sea--and shipped aboard the whaler _South
Sea Belle_. He tied his socks an' shirt an' a book o' navigation he
owned, up in a handkerchief, and slipped out over the shed roof one
night, and away he went.
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