He probably had no less difficulty in recognizing me. As
we left home about the same time, we had nothing to tell one
another; and, owing to our different situations on board, I saw but
little of him on the passage home. Sometimes, when I was at the
wheel of a calm night, and the steering required no attention, and the
officer of the watch was forward, he would come aft and hold a short
yarn with me; but this was against the rules of the ship, as is, in
fact, all intercourse between passengers and the crew. I was often
amused to see the sailors puzzled to know what to make of him, and
to hear their conjectures about him and his business. They were as
much puzzled as our old sailmaker was with the captain's instruments
in the cabin. He said there were three:- the chro-nometer, the
chre-nometer, and the the-nometer. (Chronometer, barometer, and
thermometer.) The Pilgrim's crew christened Mr. N. "Old Curious," from
his zeal for curiosities, and some of them said that he was crazy, and
that his friends let him go about and amuse himself in this way. Why
else a rich man (sailors call every man rich who does not work with
his hands, and wears a long coat and cravat) should leave a
Christian country, and come to such a place as California, to pick
up shells and stones, they could not understand.
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