"Did you drink any of it, Dolly ?" "No, sir, I never drink any liquor, for I am a preacher," replied the oiler, with a very serious and solemn expression on his face.
"How do you happen to be a greaser on a steamer if you are a preacher ?" "I worked on a steamer on the Alabama River before I became a preacher, and I took it up again.

I was raised in a preacher's family, and worked in the house." He talked as though he had been educated, but he could neither read nor write, and had picked up all his learning by the assistance of his ears alone.

But Christy had ascertained all he wished to know in regard to the schooners, and he was prepared to carry out his mission in the bay.
At the fort it appeared that all the commissioned officers were absent from the post, and the men, after exhausting themselves at work to which they were unaccustomed, had taken to their bunks and were sleeping off the fatigue, and perhaps the effects of the apple jack.

While he was thinking of the matter, the gong struck, and Christy stopped the engine.
"Do you know anything about an engine, Dolly ?" he asked, turning to the oiler.
"Yes, sir; I run the engine of the Havana over here from Mobile," replied Dolly.

"I can do it as well as any one, if they will only trust me." "Then stand by the machine, and obey the bells if they are struck," added Christy, as he went on deck.
He found the second and third lieutenants standing on the rail engaged in examining the surroundings.