Let me say right off the bat, there are many characteristics that Jim Hawkins and I do not share including but not limited to:
- A love of the sea
- A hard to fathom fondness for the inside of apple barrels
- The ability to row a boat in a sustained direction as opposed to circling and circling
- The desire to run in the direction of rather than away from gunfire
- Pulse-pounding narrative skill
- The ability to refer to someone as Barbecue without irony
- Derring-do
But the one thing that Jim and I do have in common is best illustrated in this quotation:
“‘Left, left, says he; ‘keep to you left hand, mate Jim! Under the trees with you! There’s where I killed my first goat. They dont’ come down here now; they’re all mastheaded on them mountings for the fear of Benjamin Gunn. Ah! and there’s the cetemery’–cemetery he must have meant.”
Yes, that’s right. Whether it be in casual conversation or in the heat of pirate siege, neither Jim nor I can resist the urge to pedantically correct someone’s incorrect diction.
Finally, I get Jim Hawkins!
What is this “Skeleton Island” you refer to? Mayhaps I am not as far along in the narrative voyage as you are. I just waded through the snooze fest of Dr. Livesey’s part of the tale.
Also, I was intrigued by the fact that the food item that Ben Gunn missed most after three year’s marooned an island was cheese. It got me thinking about what I would miss most if I had to live off wild goat, berries, and oysters for three years.
Now, this might be painted by my reading of your last post, but right now I am leaning toward long johns.
You?
Justin
(Me)
