Explore "The Birthday Pearl" by John Arthur Barry on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It's my birthday,' said Bob Panton, master and owner of the pearl-shell lugger Daisy, then lying at anchor off Somerset on her return from a trip about Torres Straits. 'It's my birthday,' repeated he, bringing out a 'square-face' of Hollands. 'We'll have a nip all round, and then we'll open a shell each, just for fun, and to see what sort of luck I'm to have this next year.'
The five blacks and the one other white man that constituted the Daisy's crew duly drank the skipper's health in half-pints; and then, laughing, each man chose the biggest oyster he could find--all about the size of soup-plates.