"Yes," said Rollo, "now I understand it. I wished to know very much what it meant, and I had a great mind to go and ask the helmsman."
"It was well that you did not go and ask him," said the surgeon.
"Because the officers and seamen on board ships," replied the surgeon, "don't like to be troubled with questions from landsmen while they are engaged in their duties. Even the sensible questions of landsmen appear very foolish to seamen; and then, besides, they commonly ask a great many that are absolutely very foolish. They ask the captain when he thinks they will get to the end of the voyage; or, if the wind is ahead, they ask him when he thinks it will change, and all such foolish questions; as if the captain or any body else could tell when the wind would change. Sailors have all sorts of queer answers to give to these questions, to quiz the passengers who ask them, and amuse themselves. For instance, if the passengers ask when any thing is going to happen, the sailors say, 'The first of the month.' That is a sort of proverb among them, and is meant only in fun. But if it happens to be near the end of the month, the passenger, supposing the answer is in earnest, goes away quite satisfied, while the sailors wink at each other and laugh."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I heard a lady ask the captain, a short time since, when he thought we should get to Liverpool."
"And what did the captain say?" asked the surgeon.
"He said," replied Rollo, "that she must go and ask Boreas and Neptune, and some of those fellows, for they could tell a great deal better than he could."
"The captain does not like to be asked any such questions," continued the surgeon. "He cannot possibly know how the wind and sea are going to be during the voyage, and he does not like to be teased with foolish inquiries on the subject. There is no end to the foolishness of the questions which landsmen ask when they are at sea. Once I heard a man stop a sailor, as he was going up the shrouds, to inquire of him whether he thought they would see any whales on that voyage."
"And what did the sailor tell him?" asked Rollo.
"He told him," replied the surgeon, "that he thought there would be some in sight the next morning about sunrise. So the passenger got up early the next morning and took his seat on the deck, watching every where for whales, while the sailors on the forecastle, who had told the story to one another, were all laughing at him."