Her old man at that time was old Captain Gillson, him
that had the gold tooth an' the swell ma'ogany fist in place o' the one
that got blowed off by a rocket in Falmouth Roads. Well, I was walkin' out
with a young woman at Liverpool--nice young thing--an' she give me a ring
to keep to remember 'er by, the day before we sailed. Nice thing it was; it
had 'Mizpah' wrote on it.
"We 'ad two or three fellers in the crowd for'ard that voyage as would
'andle anything as wasn't too 'ot or too 'eavy which explains why I got
into a 'abit of slippin' my bits o' vallybles, such as joolery, into a bit
of a cache I found all nice and 'andy in the planking' back o' my bunk.
"We 'ad a long passage of it 'ome, a 'undred-and-sixty days from Portland,
Oregon, to London River, an' what with thinkin' of the thumpin' lump o' pay
I'd have to draw an' one thing an' another, I clean forgot all about the
ring I'd left cached in the little place back o' my bunk yonder.
"Well, I drew my pay all right, and after a bit I tramped it to Liverpool,
to look out for another ship.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36