have a black sailor, invariably he was on chatty and half-gamesome terms
with him. In fact, like most men of a good, blithe heart, Captain Delano
took to negroes, not philanthropically, but genially, just as other men
to Newfoundland dogs.

Hitherto, the circumstances in which he found the San Dominick had
repressed the tendency. But in the cuddy, relieved from his former
uneasiness, and, for various reasons, more sociably inclined than at any
previous period of the day, and seeing the colored servant, napkin on
arm, so debonair about his master, in a business so familiar as that of
shaving, too, all his old weakness for negroes returned.

Among other things, he was amused with an odd instance of the African
love of bright colors and fine shows, in the black's informally taking
from the flag-locker a great piece of bunting of all hues, and lavishly
tucking it under his master's chin for an apron.

The mode of shaving among the Spaniards is a little different from what
it is with other nations. They have a basin, specifically called a
barber's basin, which on one side is scooped out, so as accurately to
receive the chin, against which it is closely held in lathering; which
is done, not with a brush, but with soap dipped in the water of the
basin and rubbed on the face.

In the present instance salt-water was used for lack of better; and the
parts lathered were only the upper lip, and low down under the throat,
all the rest being cultivated beard.

The preliminaries being somewhat novel to Captain Delano, he sat
curiously eying them, so that no conversation took place, nor, for the
present, did Don Benito appear disposed to renew any.

Setting down his basin, the negro searched among the razors, as for the
sharpest, and having found it, gave it an additional edge by expertly
strapping it on the firm, smooth, oily skin of his open palm; he then
made a gesture as if to begin, but midway stood suspended for an
instant, one hand elevating the razor, the other professionally dabbling
among the bubbling suds on the Spaniard's lank neck. Not unaffected by
the close sight of the gleaming steel, Don Benito nervously shuddered;
his usual ghastliness was heightened by the lather, which lather, again,
was intensified in its hue by the contrasting sootiness of the negro's
body. Altogether the scene was somewhat peculiar, at least to Captain
Delano, nor, as he saw the two thus postured, could he resist the
vagary, that in the bla