Chapter 10 - Page 2

philosophical lecture; that he never
heard of such a thing at Stunin'tun; that he should feel sneaking at
seeing his own shins in the presence of ladies; that a ship always
made better weather under some canvas than under bare poles; that he
might possibly be brought to his shirt and pantaloons, but as for
giving up these, he would as soon think of cutting the sheet-anchor
off his bows, with the vessel driving on a lee-shore; that flesh and
blood were flesh and blood, and they liked their comfort; that he
should think the whole time he was about to go in a-swimming, and
should be looking about for a good place to dive"; together with a
great many more similar objections, that have escaped me in the
multitude of things of greater interest which have since occupied my
time. I have frequently had occasion to observe, that, when a man
has one good, solid reason for his decision, it is no easy matter to
shake it; but, that he who has a great many, usually finds them of
far less account in the struggle of opinions. Such proved to be the
fact with Captain Poke on the present occasion. I succeeded in
stripping him of his garments, one by one, until I got him reduced
to the shirt, where, like a stout ship that is easily brought to her
bearings by the breeze, he "stuck and hung" in a manner to manifest
it would require a heavy strain to bring him down any lower. A lucky
thought relieved us all from the dilemma. There were a couple of
good large bison-skins among my effects, and on suggesting to Dr.
Reasono the expediency of encasing Captain Poke in the folds of one
of them, the philosopher cheerfully assented, observing that any
object of a natural and simple formation was agreeable to the
monikin senses; their objections were merely to the deformities of
art, which they deemed to be so many offences against Providence. On
this explanation, I ventured to hint that, being still in the
infancy of the new civilization, it would be very agreeable to my
ancient habits, could I be permitted to use one of the skins, also,
while Mr. Poke occupied the other. Not the slightest objection was
raised to the proposal, and measures were immediately taken to
prepare us to appear in good company. Soon after I received from Dr.
Reasono a protocol of the conditions that were to regulate the
approaching interview. This document was written in Latin, out of
respect to the ancients, and as I afterwards understood, it was
drawn up by my Lord Chatterino, who had been educated for the
diplomatic career at home, previously to the accident which had
thrown him, alas! into human hands. I translate it freely, for the
benefit of the ladies, who usually prefer their own tongues to any
others.

Protocol of an interview