He'd made up his mind property wasn't his stronghold and gone back to
cooking, and never took any more interest in property after that, nor
had any to take interest in. But he told me Sadler was in business
and getting rich, and in partnership with a Chinaman, and living in a
town called "Saleratus," sixty miles down the coast, which none of
these statements seemed likely at the time. Stevey Todd didn't know
why the town was named Saleratus. He thought maybe Sadler had named
it, or maybe gone there on account of the name, foreseeing
interesting rhymes with "potatoes" and "tomatoes." But I didn't look
Sadler up at that time.
* * * * *
The Captain turned to Uncle Abimelech, and said:
"Happen you might remember Sadler's tune to that verse, 'Sailor, my
sailor boy, bonny and blue'?"
"He never said no such impudent thing to me," said Uncle Abimelech
wrathfully. "I'd 'a' whaled him good."
"Why, that's true, Abe," said Captain Buckingham. "You wasn't much
on looks."
Stevey Todd said:
"They changed that name, Saleratus."
"That's true too," said Captain Buckingham. "An outlandish name is
bad for a town, or a ship, or a man; same as the _Anaconda,_ for
the _Anaconda_ had bad luck, same as Abimelech Dalrimple.
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