Surely that man was not his ideal of a ship-captain.

He thought of him as a sort of prince, but there was nothing princely about the miserable, bloated wretch before him.
Still he preferred his application.
"Do you want a new hand ?" asked James.
His answer was a volley of oaths and curses that made James turn pale, for he had never uttered an oath in his life, and had never listened to anything so disgusting as the tirade to which he was forced to listen.
[Illustration: THE CANAL BOY] He sensibly concluded that nothing was to be gained by continuing the conversation with such a man.

He left the schooner's deck with a feeling of discomfiture.

He had never suspected that sailors talked or acted like the men he saw.
Still he clung to the idea that all sailors were not like this captain.
Perhaps again the rebuff he received was in consequence of his rustic appearance.

The captain might be prejudiced against him, just as the shop-keepers had been, though the latter certainly had not expressed themselves in such rude and profane language.