Chapter 17. Captain Pumpkin
Captain Pumpkin laughed. “How I learned ship handling? Oh, that’s a tale,” he said as he ducked below decks, grabbed his shoes, good clothes, and a box of supplies. As he spoke he meticulously polished his shoes and all the brass buckles and buttons, and mended his garments.
“I’ll tell you, lad, there’s nothing that impresses the ladies like a man who dresses sharp, dances lively, and has some gold jingling in his pocket. Now then, as for my tale.
“My family was poor. Sometimes, around the fire at night, my parents would talk about the wealth my family had ages ago, before the accident. When he worked, my father made good money, but a shipboard accident left him crippled. When the pain wasn’t too bad he made a poor living teaching navigation. The money my par
