In truth, an old salt is very much of an old maid, though, strictly speaking, far from deserving that misdeemed appellative.

Better be an old maid, a woman with herself for a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.
When playing the sempstress, Jarl's favorite perch was the triangular little platform in the bow; which being the driest and most elevated part of the boat, was best adapted to his purpose.

Here for hours and hours together the honest old tailor would sit darning and sewing away, heedless of the wide ocean around; while forever, his slouched Guayaquil hat kept bobbing up and down against the horizon before us.
It was a most solemn avocation with him.

Silently he nodded like the still statue in the opera of Don Juan.

Indeed he never spoke, unless to give pithy utterance to the wisdom of keeping one's wardrobe in repair.