plaster and you, Bill, will make me the Mary Ann I used to be, I'm shore.' Blister my boots, she sends me 'bout six o' them health bulletins, each one healthier than the one befo', but nary a scratch has I writ. I ain't a-lookin' fer no graveyard ceremony. She wouldn't take me when I was young and she don't git me when I'm old. I'm spliced to the sea that don't never have no lumbago, an', when she hollers and howls and yells and carries on, it's jest to show the spunk she's got in her. I ain't takin' on no cargo at my time o' life. I'm a-sailin' light and easy till I puts in my last port."
Again Cap'n Buffum drew on his pipe, probably to hide a tear that seemed to be forming in the corner of his eye.
"Nothin' ain't goin' to down me, lads," he burst out suddenly. "It's too fine a day. It's a fine day, an' the sea looks like a fishpond, but she's like some folks; they're a-plannin' and a-plottin' their meanest when they looks the mildest. Some days I've seen the sea look jus' like that an', fus' thing you knows, my corns begins to ache and the nex mornin' she's a-skinnin' the cat and a-cuttin' up like she done
