The wind 's fair , and the tide upon the turn ; we 'll see the old coal-bucket burning on the Isle of May before to-night . '' `` Captain Hoseason , '' returned my uncle , `` you keep your room unco hot . '' `` It 's a habit I have , Mr. Balfour , '' said the skipper . `` I 'm a cold-rife man by my nature ; I have a cold blood , sir . There 's neither fur , nor flannel -- no , sir , nor hot rum , will warm up what they call the temperature . Sir , it 's the same with most men that have been carbonadoed , as they call it , in the tropic seas . '' `` Well , well , captain , '' replied my uncle , `` we must all be the way we 're made . '' But it chanced that this fancy of the captain 's had a great share in my misfortunes . For though I had promised myself not to let my kinsman out of sight , I was both so impatient for a nearer look of the sea , and so sickened by the closeness of the room , that when he told me to `` run down-stairs and play myself awhile , '' I was fool enough to take him at his word . Away I went , therefore , leaving the two men sitting down to a bottle and a great mass of papers ; and crossing the road in front of the inn , walked down upon the beach . With the wind in that quarter , only little wavelets , not much bigger than I had seen upon a lake , beat upon the shore . But the weeds were new to me -- some green , some brown and long , and some with little bladders that crackled between my fingers . Even so far up the firth , the smell of the sea-water was exceedingly salt and stirring ; the Covenant , besides , was beginning to shake out her sails , which hung upon the yards in clusters ; and the spirit of all that I beheld put me in thoughts of far voyages and foreign places . I looked , too , at the seamen with the skiff -- big brown fellows , some in shirts , some with jackets , some with coloured handkerchiefs about their throats , one with a brace of pistols stuck into his pockets , two or three with knotty bludgeons , and all with their case-knives . I passed the time of day with one that looked less desperate than his fellows , and asked him of the sailing of the brig. He said they would get under way as soon as the ebb set , and expressed his gladness to be out of a port where there were no taverns and fiddlers ; but all with such horrifying oaths , that I made haste to get away from him . This threw me back on Ransome , who seemed the least wicked of that gang , and who soon came out of the inn and ran to me , crying for a bowl of punch . I told him I would give him no such thing , for neither he nor I was of an age for such indulgences . `` But a glass of ale you may have , and welcome , '' said I . He mopped and mowed at me , and called me names ; but he was glad to get the ale , for all that ; and presently we were set down at a table in the front room of the inn , and both eating and drinking with a good appetite . Here it occurred to me that , as the landlord was a man of that county , I might do well to make a friend of him .
I offered him a share , as was much the custom in those days ; but he was far too great a man to sit with such poor customers as XXXXX and myself , and he was leaving the room , when I called him back to ask if he knew Mr. Rankeillor .
Ransome coal-bucket day down-stairs fiddlers firth kinsman sea-water to-night wavelets