“I’se bofe, cap’n. De ship’s doctor and de ship’s cook am de same. P’r’aps de cook tell you eat, an’ de doctor tell you not eat. You min’ um bofe, den you all right. You min’ de cook, you eat too much. Berry bad! You min’ de doctor, you eat too little. Berry bad too! You min’ ole Nim, you all right. Berry good!” Wolfe was immensely amused at all this, and the negro’s comical appearance, together with his earnest manner, caused the young Irishman to roar with laughter. He declared that Nimbus had more sense in his woolly head than half the white folks he knew, and that if he were as good a doctor as he was a cook, he ought to be a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. “Don’ know nuffin ’bout no surgins, sah,” replied Nimbus, showing the ivory of his teeth in a broad grin, and highly flattered by this praise; “but if de young gemman’s ready for anodder cup ob coffee, I’se got um a-bilin’ in de camboose.”[G] ----- Footnote G: Camboose or caboose. Both are used in referring to a ship’s galley, or place for cooking. Caboose is, however, the more common expression. ----- “Will I have another cup of coffee? Of course I will! It’s the best I ever tasted. I tell you what, Breeze, there’s nothing like drifting around a few days without anything to eat to make a fellow appreciate a meal like this.” “We had the sea-biscuit,” said Breeze. “Yes, sea-biscuit! But what did they amount to? Dry, tasteless things! I’d almost as soon eat so many chips,” exclaimed Wolfe, in a scornful tone, as he finished the last mouthful of a hot buttered roll. “Then you are not going to have them up for a sort of a dessert?” “Dessert! I should say not. I hope I’ll never have to see one, much less eat one again. They would always remind me of drifting through a fog-bank in an open dory.” All of which goes to show how very differently a hungry man and a well-fed man may view the same object. The sea still remained unruffled by a breath, and after breakfast Captain McCloud said, “So long as there’s nothing we can do until we get some wind, we’ve a chance for a yarn. If you’d like to hear about it I’ll tell you how I happen to be aboard this brig, and how she got into the sad condition you see her in now.” As both Breeze and Wolfe expressed the strongest desire to hear the captain’s story, he related it to them as follows: “You remember, Breeze, when I left home in the old _Sea Robin_ last October for the Banks I said that if all went well I’d be back in time for Christmas?” “Yes, sir, I remember.” “Well, we made a fair trip, but did not fill up as fast as I had hoped we would, so that it got to be pretty near Christmas-day before we saw our way clear to picking up our anchor and heading for Gloucester. By-the-way, have any of the _Robin’s_ crew ever turned up?” “No, sir; not one of them. You were reported as seen on the 15th of December, but since then not a word has come from you until this day.”