OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 139 be said, but yourself. To me, you be always, Mr. Mark, and Mr. Woolston, and we seem to sail along in company, much as we did the time you first went out a foremast-lad, and 1 teached you the difference between a flat-knot and a granny." " No, no, Bob, everything is not so much changed as you pretend I am not changed, in the first place." " I confess it you be the same, governor, blow high, or blow low." " Then Martha is not changed, or nothing worth men tioning. A little more matronly, perhaps, and not quite as much of a girl as when you first made her acquaintance ; but Martha, nevertheless. And, as for her heart, I ll an swer for it, that is just the colour it was at sixteen." " Why, yes, governor ; tis much as you say. Marthy is now the mother of four children, and that confarms a woman s appearance, depend on t. But, Marthy is Mar thy ; and, for that matter, Miss Bridget is Miss Bridget, as much as one pea is like another. Madam Woolston does full credit to the climate, governor, and looks more like eighteen than ever." " My wife enjoys excellent health, Betts ; and grateful am I to God that it is so. But I think all our women have a fresh and sea-air sort of look, a cheerful freshness about them, that I ascribe to the salt and the sea-breezes. Then we have mountain air, in addition, on the Peak." "Ay, ay, sir I dare say you ve got it right, as you do most matters. Well, governor, I don t know which counts up the fastest in the colony, children or whales?" " Both flourish," answered Mark, smiling, " as our re ports show. Mr. Secretary tells me that there were, on the first of the last month, three hundred and eighteen children in the colony under the age of ten years ; of whom no less than one hundred and ninety-seven are born here pure Craterinos, including your children and mine, Betts." "It s a fine beginning, governor a most capital start; and, though the young uns can t do much at taking a whale, or securing the ile, just now, they ll come on in their turns, and be useful when we re in dock as hulks, sir." "Talking of oil, you must be getting rich, Captain L . .
