"
"Well, Imogen: you see, at first I was a little baby, and didn't know
anything at all. But by and by I began to grow big, and then Daddy
Captain said to himself, 'Here's a child,' he says, 'and a child of
gentlefolks, and she mustn't grow up in ignorance, and me doing my
duty by her poor pa and ma,' he says. So he rows over to the town,
and he goes to the minister (the same minister who came over here
before), and he says, 'Good morning, Minister!' and the minister
shakes him by the hand hearty, and says, 'Why, Captain January!' he
says, 'I'm amazing glad to see you. And how is the child?' And Daddy
says, 'The child is a-growing with the flowers,' he says; 'and she's
a-growing like the flowers. Show me a rose that's as sweet and as
well growed as that child,' he says, 'and I'll give you my head,
Minister.' That's the way Daddy talks, you know, Imogen. And then
he told the minister how he didn't want the child (that was me, of
course) to grow up in ignorance, and how he wanted to teach me. And
the minister asked him was he qualified to teach. 'Not yet, I ain't!'
says Daddy Captain, 'but I'm a-going to be. I want a book, or maybe
a couple of books, that'll edicate me in a manner all round!' he says.
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