Inquisitive Sammy retired so hastily that he fell over backward.
"Now, you pull up the slack like this--Hey, Mike! I _did_ get you--Say, boys, you sheer off a bit while this here's goin' on. I'm plum' dangerous with this here tool."
"What do you do with the thimble?" asked Jeanne, when she had removed placid Annie to a safe distance.
"Durned if I didn't forget that. You puts it on this here finger--no--well now, you puts it on _some_ finger and uses it to push the needle like that."
"How do you _keep_ it on?" asked Jeanne, twirling it rapidly on an upraised finger.
"I guess you'd better use the side of this here freight car like I allus does," admitted Old Captain. "Just push her in like that. Now, _you_ try."
Jeanne sewed for a while, according to these instructions, then handed the result to her teacher. The Captain beamed as he examined the seam.
"Ain't that just plum' beautiful!" said he, showing it to Michael. "That little gal can _sew_. But I ain't just sure them is the right tools--this here seam in my shirt now--well, it ain't so goldarned--hum--hum--ladies present--so tarnation thick as that there what I taught ye."
At their worst, the good old Captain's mild oaths were never very bad. Unhappily Jeanne had heard far more terrifying ones from sailors on passing boats. As you see, Captain Blossom _tried_ to use his very best language in the children's presence; but his best, perhaps, wasn't quite as polished as Léon Duval's.
"I don't see any large black knots in your shirt seam," observed Jeanne. "Mine look as if they'd _scratch_."
"Maybe they cuts 'em off," returned the Captain, eying the seam, doubtfully. "No, by gum! This here's done by machine. Yours is all right for hand work. But I tell ye what, Jeannie. You come round about this time tomorry and maybe, by then, I can find better needles. An' there was a sleeve I tore off an old shirt--maybe that'd sew better."
"I've always wondered," said Jeanne, "how people made buttonholes. They're such _neat_ things. Can _you_ make buttonholes?"
"To be sure I can. Nothin' easier. You cuts a round hole and then you takes half hitches all around it. I'm a leetle out of practice just now; but when I've practiced a bit--you see, you got to get started just right. But it's pretty soon to be thinkin' about the buttonholes."