138 WHALING AND FISHING. 



and disagreement with the greenhorns, whom 1 

 could look upon only as speaking brutes with 

 several exceptions of course. 



"I'll tell you, Charley," said he, " the reason why 

 they hate you. You assert for yourself the posi- 

 Jon of a man, but have not the beard necessary to 

 a tacit enforcement of your claims. If you've 

 been in a lime -juicer, you know that there one is 

 considered a boy till he can show a pair of whiskers, 

 ind a man ever afterward, if he's as stupid as a 

 donkey, and as lazy as a first class whaleman. 

 This is sailor human nature. If it was not for the 

 little whiskers I can raise about my face," his 

 features were barely discernible through a most 

 enormous black beard "I should have to fight 

 these fellows every day of my life." 



" All except the Portuguese," added he, "they are 

 a good sensible set of fellows, who mind their own 

 business, and act upon the square in everything." 



"Wait till I have a beard," thought I, with an 

 internal vow, that when that blessed epoch in my 

 history arrived, I would assume and assert, at all 

 hazards, all the dignity and prerogatives of mature 

 manhood. 



" Meantime, Charley," said my new friend very 

 coolly, "handspikes, applied about the shins of 

 those who prove troublesome to you, will be found 

 an excellent substitute for hair on your chin." 



In such talk we passed away very pleasantly a 

 couple of hours, I meanwhile regaling myself upon 

 the contents of a jar of most delicious tamarind*, 



