He was by nature powerful of thought and sensibility, and the creative spirit was restive and urgent.

He was swiftly mastered by the concept or sensation in him that struggled in birth-throes to receive expression and form, and then he forgot himself and where he was, and the old words--the tools of speech he knew--slipped out.
Once, he declined something from the servant who interrupted and pestered at his shoulder, and he said, shortly and emphatically, "Pew!" On the instant those at the table were keyed up and expectant, the servant was smugly pleased, and he was wallowing in mortification.

But he recovered himself quickly.
"It's the Kanaka for 'finish,'" he explained, "and it just come out naturally.

It's spelt p-a-u." He caught her curious and speculative eyes fixed on his hands, and, being in explanatory mood, he said:- "I just come down the Coast on one of the Pacific mail steamers.

She was behind time, an' around the Puget Sound ports we worked like niggers, storing cargo-mixed freight, if you know what that means.