" This, I must
confess, surprised me much, and I pondered the saying long, but could
come at no satisfactory conclusion as to that wherein my old-fashionedness
lay. It is true I was a quiet lad, and seldom spoke except when spoken
to. Moreover, I never could understand the jokes of my companions, even
when they were explained to me: which dulness in apprehension occasioned
me much grief. However, I tried to make up for it by smiling and looking
pleased when I observed that they were laughing at some witticism which
I had failed to detect. I was also very fond of inquiring into the nature
of things and their causes, and often fell into fits of abstraction while
thus engaged in my mind. But in all this I saw nothing that did not seem
to be exceedingly natural, and could by no means understand why my
comrades should call me "an old-fashioned fellow."
Now, while engaged in the coasting trade, I fell in with many seamen
who had travelled to almost every quarter of the globe; and I freely
confess that my heart glowed ardently within me as they recounted their
wild adventures in foreign lands--the dreadful storms they had
weathered, the appalling dangers they had escaped, the wonderful
creatures they had seen both on the land and in the sea, and the
interesting lands and strange people they had visited. But of all the
places of which they told me, none captivated and charmed my
imagination so much as the Coral Islands of the Southern Seas.
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