112 WHALING AND BEAR-HUNTING 



sound asleep again, the captain came from the town, jumped 

 down on deck and came growling to the galley : " Hillo, 

 you're a nice watchman ! asleep in the galley, when you 

 should be on deck." " Well, captain," said the boy, " I 

 work all day hard, and all night I vatch and den comes 

 your vife and I cooks for her long times, what you 

 expect ? " 



" My wife," whispered the captain anxiously. " Evan, 

 here's something for you, put that in your pocket and keep 

 it, and promise not to say a word about my coming aboard." 



Henriksen promised, and the captain turned and stole 

 away along the dark quay. 



In the morning a wire came to the first mate I think it was 

 supposed to be from Antwerp saying the captain was on his 

 way home to meet his wife in Norway, on which the fond 

 creature said she would at once return home to meet her good 

 man, and she went. An hour later the captain appeared on 

 board, and they made sail for Valparaiso. 



My wife said : " That's a most excellent story, Captain 

 Henriksen," at which he protested solemnly : " No, no, dat 

 is no story, dat is quite true, I tells you." And we had to 

 explain the differences in our language between the " story," 

 an incident, and the " story," an untruth ; if you try, you 

 will find it is rather difficult to do this. The language 

 question again ! how often it crops up. I wish I could 

 speak Norsk properly ; I have to worry along with English. 

 I was told to-day I can speak that difficult language very 

 well. We had all been speaking to the lighthouse service 

 captain for quite a long time when he complimented Henrik- 

 sen on his English and flatteringly told me I spoke it even 

 better, and I explained I'd made a study of it for about half-a- 

 century, and in fact had the honour of lisping my first words 

 in his own part of the country. 



That incident was slightly amusing : but halting English 

 nearly got our Swedish motor inspector, whom we met at 

 Tobermory, into serious trouble. He is such a nice-looking 

 fellow, too, I felt quite sorry. He waited there for our 

 arrival peacefully for three days at the Mishnish Hotel, 

 putting in the time sketching. One day he made a drawing 



