The Captain seemed to wonder why this impression should have been produced by what he had just said.
"I only try," he answered, "to do what good I can, wherever I go." "Your life must be a happy one," Randal said.
Captain Bennydeck's head drooped.

The shadows that attend on the gloom of melancholy remembrance showed their darkening presence on his face.
Briefly, almost sternly, he set Randal right.
"No, sir." "Forgive me," the younger man pleaded, "if I have spoken thoughtlessly." "You have mistaken me," the Captain explained; "and it is my fault.
My life is an atonement for the sins of my youth.

I have reached my fortieth year--and that one purpose is before me for the rest of my days.

Sufferings and dangers which but few men undergo awakened my conscience.

My last exercise of the duties of my profession associated me with an expedition to the Polar Seas.