It is the
announcement of the first, and next to the last, performance of a play
I wrote in my calf days. The 'Eureka Opera Houses is--or was, if the
'gods' weren't too much for it--located at Daybury, Illinois. I keep
that bill to prevent my conceit getting away with me. Also, when I get
discouraged over my novel, it reminds me that, however bad the yarn may
turn out to be, I have committed worse crimes."
This led to the captain's asking about the novel and how it was
progressing. His companion admitted having made some progress, more
in the line of revision than anything else. He had remodeled his hero
somewhat, in accordance with his new friend's suggestions during their
interview at the Warren apartment, and had introduced other characters,
portrait sketches from memory of persons whom he had known in his
boyhood days in the Maine town. He read a few chapters aloud, and
Captain Elisha waxed almost enthusiastic over them.
Then followed a long discussion over a point of seamanship, the handling
of a bark in a gale. It developed that the young author's knowledge
of saltwater strategy was extensive and correct in the main, though
somewhat theoretical. That of his critic was based upon practice and
hard experience. He cited this skipper and that as examples, and carried
them through no'theasters off Hatteras and typhoons in the Indian Ocean.
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