"He is, sir," I replied; for I wished to leave no doubt in his mind on this subject.
"Your mate was very efficient. What is he?"
"He is the son of a distinguished ex-governor of one of the States, and the nephew of----"
"Precisely so; I know his uncle very well. I can do nothing for him. And your two deckhands?" continued the planter.
"They are the sons of English gentlemen, over here on a vacation, and their fathers have each an income of over ten thousand pounds a-year," I added, quietly.
"Your engineer, whose skill and pluck carried us through the crevasse, is, I dare say, one of the sons of her Majesty, the Queen of England," added the passenger, laughing.
"On the contrary, he is a son of a Michigan farmer, now well to do in the world," I replied.
"O, no, sir, only in comfortable circumstances. He has known what poverty is, but he has enough to live on now."
"By the way, Captain Alick, do you happen to have anybody on board who is not 'well to do,' as you call it?" asked the planter.
"Ben Bowman, the assistant, who was in the boat that brought off your family to the steamer, has been a lake sailor, cook and fireman all his life; and I don't know that he has five hundred dollars in the world. He sends most of his wages to his mother, and is one of the truest and bravest men I ever saw."
I also told him the story of Cobbington and the two firemen. I judged that he felt very grateful for the service the Sylvania had rendered to him and "his people," and that he was thinking up some way to reward her officers and crew for what they had done.
"The pilot is a Louisiana man, and says he was raised near St. Charles," I added.
"His name is Billy Bell, and I know him very well," replied Colonel Hungerford. "You have a very distinguished and wealthy ship's company, Captain Alick. I wished to distribute a thousand dollars, more or less, among them; but I see that such a proposition would be taken as an insult by some of them."
"It would be taken as it was intended, not as an insult; but it would be respectfully declined by the captain, the mate, the two deck-hands, and perhaps by all the others; for I am sure that no one on board would be willing to be paid for an act of common humanity," I replied.