He saw trees moving in the wind." "Don Antonino had good eyes," answered the sailor incredulously.
"What was the name of your vessel ?" asked Padre Francesco.
"The _Papa_" replied the sailor without a smile.

"She was called _Papa_." Ercole stared at him a moment and then laughed; and he laughed so rarely that it distorted the yellow parchment of his face as if it must crack it.

The sound of his laughter was something like the creaking of a cart imitated by a ventriloquist.

But Padre Francesco knit his bushy brows, for he thought the sailor was making game of him, who had been boatswain on a square-rigger.
"I went to sea for thirty years," he said, "but I never heard of a vessel called the _Papa_.

You have said a silly thing.