The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

CAPTAIN SAMMIS'S ADVENTURE. 69
sand of them little sea jellies sliiiiin' there, like second-hand stars, in the
wrinkles of his stomach, and then there was lots of room too. By-an'-by,
while I was lookiu' round, I saw a black patch on tlie starboard side of his
stomach, and went over to examine it. There I found printed in injey ink,
in big letters, "Jonah, B.C. 1007." Then I knew whei'e I was, and I be-
gan to feel real bad.
" ' I opened my tobacco-box to take a mouthful of hue-cut to steady
my nerves. I suppose my hand was a little unsteady; anyhow, I drojjped
some of the tobacco on the floor of the whale's stomach. It gave a convulsive
jump, and I saw at once the whale wasn't used to it. I picked up
a jack-knife I saw laj-in' on the floor, and cut a plug of tobacco into fine
snuff, and scattered it around in the little wrinkles in the stomach. You
should have seen how the medicine worked. The stomach began to heave
as though a young earthc[uake had opened up under it, and then it squirmed
and twisted, and finally turned wrong side out, and fio]iped me into the
sea. The mate's boat was there picking up the men from the smashed
boat, and just as they had given me up for lost they saw me and took me
in. They laughed when 1 told them of the inside of the whale, and the
printin' I saw there ;
but when I showed them the old jack-knife with the
American eagle on one side and Jonah's name on the other, they stopped
laughin' and looked serious. It is always well to have something on hand
when you are tellin' a true story, and that knife was enough.'
"That same captain," he continued, " was once out for a whale, but
when they killed him, they were ten miles from the ship. The captain
got on the dead whale, and sent the boat back to let the ship know where
they were. After they had gone, a storm came on and drove the ship
away, and there the captain sta3'ed three weeks. He stuck an oar into
the whale to hang on to, and the third week a ship hove in sight. As he
didn't know what she was, he hoisted the American flag, which he hap-
pened to have a picture of on his pocket-handkerchief; and pretty soon
the ship hung out her colors, and her captain came on board. Captain
Sam mis was tired of the monotony of life on a whale, and so he sold out
his interest to the visitor. lie got half the oil and a passage to Honolulu,
where he found his own craft all right."
" You say lie i-emained three weeks on the back of that whale," said
one of the listeners.
" Yes, I said three weeks."
" Well, how did he live all that time?"
" How can I tell V was the reply ; " that's none of my business.
Probably he took his meals at the nearest restaurant and slept at home.