human
Whit deck are you on?
gpt
The main deck.
human
I wondered. I never seen you on the lower deck. Where have you been?
gpt
What do you mean?
human
Have you been in Canada?
gpt
Yes--part of it.
human
What part?
gpt
Oh, I came up through Lower Ontario.
human
Then you wasn't stopping there? this from the Fifer, with a villainous scowl, as if Scholar had been trying to deceive.
gpt
You was in the States?
human
Yes.
gpt
What states?
human
Michigan.
gpt
Whit was ye daeing in Michigan?
human
--
gpt
What were you doing in Florida? the Inquisitive One had asked after the story was told.--
human
Eh? had said the man who had been in Florida, with a note of warning.--
gpt
I asked you what you were doing in Florida? the Inquisitive One had returned, with a showing of the teeth.--
human
Ask my elbow! had been all the answer to that, spoken as if each word was a knife-thrust. Scholar felt himself out of his sphere. He had no practice in saying:
gpt
Ask my elbow! in that tone, or in any tone; and it seemed to him the requisite reply now. As he paused, wondering how to fob off these two catechists, the Fifer said, with a curl of his lip:
human
You're getting it now, then.
gpt
Getting what? I don't understand you.
human
Oh, you understand all right.
gpt
Bejabbers, it's cold! Let's have a quarter-deck walk, Scholar.