The mate of the _South
Sea Belle_, believing the creature had died of the disease supposedly
caused by the growth of the ambergris in its intestines, had insisted
upon boarding the carcass. Driving away the clamorous and ravenous sea
fowl, he had dug down with his blubber-spade into the vitals of the
whale and recovered the gray, spongy, ill-smelling mass which was worth
so great a sum to the perfumer.
"'Twas a big haul--one o' the biggest lumps o' ambergris ever brought
into the port of New Bedford," concluded Cap'n Amazon. "Helped make
the owners rich, and the Old Man, too. Course, I got my sheer; but a
boy's sheer on a whaler them days wouldn't buy him no house and lot.
So I went to sea again."
"You must have been at sea almost all your life, Cap'n Amazon."
"Pretty nigh. I ain't never lazed around on shore when there was a
berth in a seaworthy craft to be had for the askin'. I let Abe do
that," he added, in what Louise thought was a rather scornful tone.
"Why, I don't believe Uncle Abram has a lazy bone in his body! See the
nice business he has built up here.
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