Adapted from Captain Littlepage
by Sarah Orne Jewett
"I am an old man, as you can see," said Captain Littlepage,
"and I have been a shipmaster the greater part of my life. You
may not think it, but I am above eighty years of age
"You must have left the sea many years ago," I said.
"I should have been serviceable at least five or six years
more," he answered.
Now we were approaching dangerous ground, but I asked to
hear more with all the deference I really felt.
"I had a valuable cargo of general merchandise from the
London docks to Fort Churchill, a station of the old company on
Hudson's Bay," said the captain earnestly "we were delayed in
loading, and baffled by head winds and a heavy tumbling sea all
the way north. Then the fog kept us off the coast; and when I
made port at last, it was too late to delay in those northern waters
with such a vessel and such a crew as I had. They cared for
nothing, and idled me into a fit of sickness; but my first mate was
a good, excellent man, so we made what speed we could to get
clear of Hudson's Bay I meant it to be my last voyage in her, and
so it proved. She had been an excellent vessel in her day. Of the
cowards aboard her I can't say so much."
"Then you were wrecked?" I asked.
I wasn't by any fault of mine," said the captain gloomily
"It was a hard life at sea in those days, I am sure." I said
"It was a dog's life," said the poor old gentleman, "but it
made men of those who followed it. I see a change for the worse

which piece of dialogue best demonstrates a central idea in the passage?

A. "You must have left the sea many years ago," I said.

B. Kept us off the coast; and when I made port at last, it was too late to delay in those northern waters with such a vessal and such a crew as I had.

C. A captain is not expected to be familiar with his crew, and for the company's sake in dull days and nights he turns to his book.

D. There's no large-minded way of thinking now; the worst have got to be the best and rule everything; we're all turned upside down and going back year by year ​