ouse, if we except two fine old
Newfoundland dogs which the Captain had brought home with him from his
last voyage, and which he called "Port" and "Starboard." He had also a
flock of handsome chickens, and some foreign ducks. "And now," said he,
"when you have seen all these, and Main Brace, and me, you have seen my
family, for this is all the family that I have, unless I count the
pretty little birds that hop and skip and sing among the trees."

Main Brace did all the work about the house, except what the Captain did
himself. He cooked, and set the Captain's table, and kept the Captain's
house in order generally. As for the house itself, there was not much of
it to keep in order. We have already seen that it was very small and but
one story high. There was no hall in it, and only five rooms upon the
floor. Let us look into it more particularly.

Entering it from the front through the little porch covered over with
honeysuckle vines that are smelling sweet all the summer through, we
come at once into the largest of the rooms, where the Captain takes his
meals and does many other things. But he never calls it his dining-room.
Nothing can induce him to call it anything but his "quarter-deck." On
the right-hand side there are two doors, and there are two more on the
left-hand side, and directly before us there are two windows, looking
out into the Captain's garden, where there are fruits and vegetables of
every kind growing in abundance. The first door on the right opens into
a little room where Main Brace sleeps. This the Captain calls the
"forecastle." The other door on the right opens into the kitchen, which
the Captain calls his "galley." The first door on the left is closed,
but the second opens into what the Captain calls his "cabin," and this
connects with a little room behind the door that is closed, which he
calls his "state-room,"--and, in truth, it looks more like a state-room
of a ship than a chamber. It has no bed in it, but a narrow berth on one
side, just like a state-room berth. All sorts of odd-fashioned clothes
are hanging on the walls, which the Captain says he has worn in the
different countries where he has travelled. Odd though this state-room
is, it is not half so odd as the Captain's cabin.

Let us examine this cabin of the Captain. There is an old table in the
centre of it. There are a few old books in an old-fashioned bookcase.
There is no carpet to be seen, but the floor is almost covered over w