"Only twenty thousand--a mere nothing."
* * * * *
So one fine morning I throws a young kangaroo on my shoulder, and off I
starts. I swam for three months, night and day, and then feeling a
little tired, I laid to on my back, and then I set off again; but by
this time I was so covered with barnacles, that I made but little way.
So I stopped at Ascension, scraped and cleaned myself, and then, after
feeding for a week on turtle, just to keep the scurvy out of my bones, I
set off again; and as I passed the Gut, I thought I might just as well
put in here; and here I arrived, sure enough, yesterday, about three
bells in the morning watch, after a voyage of five months and three
days.
* * * * *
When Mustapha translated all this to the pacha, the latter was lost in
astonishment. "Allah Wakbar! God is everywhere! Did you ever hear of
such a swimmer? Twenty thousand miles--five months and three days. It is
a wonderful story! Let his mouth be filled with gold."
Mustapha intimated to the sailor the unexpected compliment about to be
conferred on him, just as he had finished the bottle and rolled it away
on one side. "Well, that be a rum way of paying a man. I have heard it
said that a fellow _pursed_ up his mouth; but I never afore heard of a
mouth being a purse. Howsomever, all's one for that; only, d'ye see, if
you are about to stow it away in bulk, it may be just as well to get rid
of the dunnage.
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