"Dad won't never take me ashore there.
They're a mighty tough crowd--an' Abishai's the toughest.

You saw his boat?
Well, she's nigh seventy year old, they say; the last o' the old Marblehead heel-tappers.

They don't make them quarter-decks any more.
Abishai don't use Marblehead, though.

He ain't wanted there.

He jes' drif's araound, in debt, trawlin' an' cussin' like you've heard.