Blow the Man Down - A Romance of the Coast

Captain Candage offered no rejoinder to that terse and meaty summing up.

Naturally, he was as ready with his tongue as Captain Ranse Lougee or

any other man alongshore. But in this case the master of the Polly

was not sure of his ground. He knew that Captain Lougee had qualified as

father of five. In the judgment of a mariner experience counts. And

he did not resent the manner of Captain Lougee because that skipper's

brutal bluntness was well known by his friends. Captain Candage had

asked and he had received. He rested his elbows on his knees and stared

after the departing caller and pondered.

"Maybe he is right. He probably is right. But it wouldn't be shipboard

discipline if I told her that I have been wrong. I reckon I'll go aft

and be pleasant and genteel, hoping that nothing will happen to rile my

feelings. Now that my feelings are calm and peaceful, and having taken

course and bearings from a father of five, I'll probably say to her,

'You'd better trot along home, sissy, seeing that I have told you how to

mind your eye after this.'"