Swore without no reason to it.
"Well----Where was I? Oh, yes! We had light airs in the Caribbean for
once, and didn't make no more headway in a day than a brick barge goin'
upstream. We come to an island--something more than a key--and Cap'n
Braman ordered a boat's crew ashore for water. I was in the second's
boat so I went. We found good water easy and the second officer, who
was a nice young chap, let us scour around on our own hook for fruit
and such, after we'd filled the barrels.
"I was all for shellfish them days, and I see some big mussels attached
to the rocks, it bein' low water. Some o' them mussels, when ye gut
'em same as ye would deep-sea clams, make the nicest fry you ever
tasted.
"Wal," said Cap'n Amazon, walking sedately home from church with his
amused niece on his arm, "I wanted a few of them mussels. There was a
mud bottom and so the water was black. Just as I reached for the first
mussel I felt something creeping around my left leg. I thought it was
eel-grass; then I thought it was an eel.
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