The captain then displayed his curiosities; these were numerous and strange, and served in some sort as illustrations of his discourse. There were elephant’s tusks and ostrich’s eggs, the sword of the sword-fish, and the saw of the saw-fish; there was a nautilus’ shell, which might have carried a boat’s crew; and there was the entire skin of an enormous snake, which the captain intended to have stuffed and hung as a capital ornament round the best room. There was one upon which Mrs. Seaward set an especial value, it being the first gift the captain had brought her home, when he was “a courting her.” This gift of true love was an elephant’s tail, with about twenty black bristles on it, the size of darning-needles, and looking like polished whale-bone; but the one upon which her spouse particularly prided himself, was the gaping jaw of a monstrous shark, with its triple row of teeth, suggesting the pleasurable idea of one’s leg or arm, or half one’s body serving as a _bonne bouche_ to the monster. These treasures were displayed before George’s admiring eyes, and he looked upon the possessor of them with a feeling almost amounting to awe. A word or two more regarding these same curiosities: after being handed down through several generations, they were among the first deposited in the Salem Museum upon its being founded; and they there formed a nucleus, around which has been gathered, from time to time the present noble collection. But to return to our narrative; when George rose to take leave at this first visit, the captain, overflowing with good-will, brought out two cocoa-nuts, a pine-apple, and a pot of foreign sweetmeats— “Here, you may stow away these for your ma’am;” (the pockets were capacious in those days) “and mind, don’t forget to ax your sir to let you come down next Wednesday, and you and Dick may go over the Two Pollys.” The desired permission being obtained, the two lads were taken to visit what was nearest to its proud owner’s heart—after his “old woman and Dick”—his good vessel the Two Pollys. To describe George’s ecstasy at the view of the new world now presented to him would be impossible. He examined every part of the vessel—let himself down the sides, and clambered up again—bestrided the bowsprit—ran up the shrouds—and, before the captain could call out—“Take care, boy, do you mean to break your neck!” he was swinging by his two hands from the top-mast. The frightened seaman swore a tremendous oath, and threatened the nine-tails; but by the time George had reached the deck, which he did in a whole skin, his terror for the boy’s life was changed into admiration at his daring. “Your sir ought to make a sailor of you; it’s a shame that such a lad as you should be a land-lubber.” So thought George, and his resolution was from this moment taken.