t to have the half of my rent cut off.
I can't stand it. Like old Shylock, I mean to stick to the letter of
the bond. Now, _is_ it `to be, or not to be?' as Hamlet said to the
ass."

"I was not aware that Hamlet said that to an ass," remarked Jessie, with
a little laugh.

"Oh yes! he did," returned the captain quite confidently; "he said it to
himself, you know, an' that was the same thing. But what about the
agreement?"

"Well, since you are so determined, I suppose we must give in," said
Kate.

"We can't resist you, captain," said Jessie, "but there is one thing
that we must positively insist on, namely, that you come and sit in this
room of an evening. I suppose you read or write a great deal, for we
see your light burning very late sometimes, and as you have no fire you
must often feel very cold."

"Cold!" shouted the captain, with a laugh that caused the very
window-frames to vibrate. "My dear ladies, I'm never cold. Got so used
to it, I suppose, that it has no power over me. Why, when a man o' my
size gets heated right through, it takes three or four hours to cool him
even a little. Besides, if it do come a very sharp frost, I've got a
bear-skin coat that our ship-carpenter made for me one voyage in the
arctic regions. It is hot enough inside almost to cook you. Did I ever
show it you? I'll fetch it."

Captain Bream rose with such energy that he unintentionally spurned his
chair--his own solid peculiar chair--and caused it to pirouette on one
leg before tumbling backward with a crash. Next minute he returned
enveloped from head to foot in what might be termed a white-bear ulster,
with an enormous hood at the back of his neck.

Accustomed as the sisters were to their lodger's bulk, they were not
prepared for the marvellous increase caused by the monstrous hairy
garment.

"It would puzzle the cold to get at me through this, wouldn't it?" said
its owner, surveying it with complacency. "It was my own invention
too--at least the carpenter and I concocted it between us.

"The sleeves are closed up at the ends, you see, and a thumb attached to
each, so as to make sleeves and mittens all of a piece, with a slit near
the wrists to let you shove your hands out when you want to use them
naked, an' a flap to cover the slit and keep the wind out when you don't
want to shove out your hands. Then the hood, you see, is large and
easy, so that it can be pulled well for'ard--so--and this broad band
behind