Captain Jim 's `` few little things '' turned out to be a most interesting collection of curios , hideous , quaint and beautiful . And almost every one had some striking story attached to it . Anne never forgot the delight with which she listened to those old tales that moonlit evening by that enchanted driftwood fire , while the silver sea called to them through the open window and sobbed against the rocks below them . Captain Jim never said a boastful word , but it was impossible to help seeing what a hero the man had been -- brave , true , resourceful , unselfish . He sat there in his little room and made those things live again for his hearers . By a lift of the eyebrow , a twist of the lip , a gesture , a word , he painted a whole scene or character so that they saw it as it was . Some of Captain Jim 's adventures had such a marvellous edge that Anne and Gilbert secretly wondered if he were not drawing a rather long bow at their credulous expense . But in this , as they found later , they did him injustice . His tales were all literally true . Captain Jim had the gift of the born storyteller , whereby `` unhappy , far-off things '' can be brought vividly before the hearer in all their pristine poignancy . Anne and Gilbert laughed and shivered over his tales , and once Anne found herself crying . Captain Jim surveyed her tears with pleasure shining from his face . `` I like to see folks cry that way , '' he remarked . `` It 's a compliment . But I ca n't do justice to the things I 've seen or helped to do . I 've 'em all jotted down in my life-book , but I have n't got the knack of writing them out properly . If I could hit on jest the right words and string 'em together proper on paper I could make a great book . It would beat A Mad Love holler , and I believe Joe 'd like it as well as the pirate yarns . Yes , I 've had some adventures in my time ; and , do you know , Mistress Blythe , I still lust after 'em . Yes , old and useless as I be , there 's an awful longing sweeps over me at times to sail out -- out -- out there -- forever and ever . ''
`` Like Ulysses , you would ` Sail beyond the sunset and the baths Of all the western stars until you die , ' '' said XXXXX dreamily .
Anne Blythe Gilbert Jim Joe curios evening fire life-book right