The old sea captain was surrounded at the tea party, to which his wife had dragged him, much against his will, by a group of women pestering him for a story from his adventures. Finally, at the end of his patience, he began.
"Once, I was shipwrecked on the coast of South America, and there I came across a tribe of wild women, who had no tongues."
"Mercy!" exclaimed all the fair listeners with one voice. "But they couldn't talk."
"That," snapped the old sea captain, "was what made them wild."
