The Romance of Jenny Harlowe Author:William Clark Russell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JIM'S REFORMATION. " Mt father was over seventy when he died," began a sea- captain, with whom I was having a long yarn, in answer to my request to him to rel... more »ate the story. " His memory in nautical matters went far back, as you may reckon when I tell you that it's over twenty years since the hatches closed over him. He had a very keen recollection, and was exact in what he said, and was one of the most conversable men that I can recall, full of stories, beginning pretty well with the year one of the present century, with experiences covering a score of extinct conditions of the maritime life, such as slaving, privateering, and the like, not to mention piracy; for he would talk grimly of one cruise under the black flag, but in a dark manner, and with a wooden face and a hint in the glance he shot at you, that if you wanted to raise his hump you need but ask him a question or two on that matter. "He began as an apprentice when a mere boy, and worked his way up through all the grades, viewing every part of the world, and grappling with his calling in a manner that's no longer possible in these days of steam and swift despatch, change of shipmates, and general hurry, until he ended on the quarter-deck of a West Indiaman as skipper—a post of dignity in those times, for the passenger traders to the Antilles were a set of craft but a little less handsome and sumptuousthan the vessels of the East India Company. I have a painting of my father's last ship at home, and you shall see her when you call. Nothing is wanting: there are the gilded quarter-galleries sparkling with glass, a stem handsome as a French frigate's with its twisting of gilt devices, big windows, and the golden symbolism with which the shipwrights of that day loved to embellish their fabrics; masts soaring to the alt...« less