Oh, isnt he, just, said Susan, with a little confused laugh.
Susan, continued Haco, with increasing earnestness, Are ye sure hes worthy of you?
Yes, father, Im quite sure of that.
Well then, Susan, youre a sensible girl, and you ought to know best; but I dont feel easy about ye, cause youre just as like as two peas to your dear mother, what went to the bottom in the last coal-coffin I commanded, an you would ha gone too, darlin, if I hadnt bin spared to swim ashore with ye on my back. It was all I could do. Ah, Susan! it was a black night for you an me that. Well, as I was a sayin, youre as like yer mother as two peas, and she was as trustful as you are, an little knew wot a bad lot she got when she set her heart on me.
Father, thats not true.
Aint it, lass? Well, let it pass, but then this feller, this Dan Hursey
Horsey, father, said Susan.
Well, well, it aint much better; this Horsey is an Irishman, an I dont like Irishmen.
Father, youd get to like em if you only knew em better, said Susan earnestly. What bells that? she added, as a loud ringing echoed through the house.
The dinner bell, lass. Come an see wot a comfrable feed they git. I can tell ee that them Sailors Homes is the greatest blessin that was ever got up for us sea-dogs. We aint xactly such soft good naturd ignorant big babies as some o your well-meanin pheelanthropists would make us out; but we are uncommon hard put to it when we git ashore, for every port is alive with crimps an land-sharks to swaller us up when we come off a long voyage; an the wust of it is, that were in a wild reckless humour for the most part when we git ashore with our pockets full o yellow boys, an are too often quite willin to be swallered up, so that lots of us are constantly a-goin to sticks an stivers. An then before the Homes was set a-goin, the fellers as wanted to get quiet lodgins didnt find it easy to know where to look for em, an was often took in; an when they wanted to send cash to their wives or mothers, they didnt well know how to manage it; but now, wherever theres a Home you can git cheap board, good victuals, help in the way o managin yer cash, an no end of advice gratis. Its only a pity there aint one or two of em in every port in the kingdom.
See here, continued Haco, warming with his subject as he led Susan past the dormitories where the Russians, who had been maimed during the recent wrecks, were being supplied with dinner in their berths, see here,another o the best o the institootions o this land looks arter them poor fellers, an pays their shot for em as long as theyre here, an sends them to their homes free of expensethats the Shipwrecked Fishermens and Mariners Society. Youve heerd o that Society, Susan, havent ee?
No father, never.
What, never heerd o the Shipwrecked Mariners Society with its hundreds o honorary agents all round the coast, who have done more to dry the tears o orphans an comfort widders hearts than tongue can tell?Never heerd o it, an you a sailors daughter?
I daresay Im very stupid for being so ignorant, father; but I never heard of it. You know Ive spent most o my life inland with old Auntie Bess, an only come here this year.
Mayhap, continued Haco, shaking his head gravely, youve never heerd, neither, o the Lifeboat Institootion.
Never, said Susan meekly. Ive seen the lifeboat we have here, you know, but I never heard of the Institootion.
Well, well, Susan, I neednt be surprised, for, to say truth, theres many in this country, who think no small beer o theirselves, that know precious little about either the one or the other, although theyre the most valooable Institootions in the country. Ill tell ee about em, lass, some other timehow they saves hundreds o lives, an relieves no end o distress annooally. Its enough just now to say that the two Institootions is what I calls brother an sisterthe Lifeboat one bein the brother; the Shipwrecked Mariners one bein the sister. The brother, besides savin thousands o pounds worth o goods, saves hundreds o lives every year. But when the brother has saved the shipwrecked sailor, his work is done. He hands him over to the sister, who clothes him, feeds him, warms himas you see bein done to them there Roosiansand then sends him home. Every sailor in the country should be a member o the Shipwrecked Mariners Society, say I. Ive been one myself for many years, an it only costs me three shillings a year. Ill tell ee some other time what good it does me; but just now you an I shall go an have some grub.
Where shall we go to get it, father?
To the refreshment room below, lass. It wont do to take ye to the dinin hall o the Home for three reasons,first, cause yere a ooman, an they aint admitted; second, cause it wouldnt be pleasant for ye to dine wi forty or fifty Jack-tars; and, thirdly, if ye wanted it ever so much yer old father wouldnt let yeso come along, lass, to dinner.
Chapter Ten.
The Dinner in the RestaurantHaco meets an Old Friend and becomes Communicative
The room to which Haco led his daughter was a small oblong one, divided off into compartments similar to those with which we are familiar in eating-houses and restaurants of the poorer class. It formed part of the Home, but was used by the general public as well as by seamen, who wished to order a meal at any time and pay for it.
Haco Barepoles, being at the time a boarder in the home, was entitled to his dinner in the general mess-room, but being bent on enjoying his meal in company with Susan, he chose to forego his rights on that occasion.
Being the hour at which a number of seamen, labourers, clerks, and others were wont to experience the truth of the great fact that nature abhors a vacuum, the room was pretty full, and a brisk demand was going on for soup, tea, coffee, rolls, and steaks, etcetera, all of which were supplied on the most moderate terms, in order to accommodate the capacities of the poorest purse.
In this temple of luxury you could get a small bowl of good soup for one penny, which, with a halfpenny roll, might form a dinner to any one whose imagination was so strong as to enable him to believe he had had enough. Any one who was the fortunate possessor of threepence, could, by doubling the order, really feel his appetite appeased. Then for those whose poverty was extreme, or appetite unusually small, a little cup of tea could be supplied for one halfpennyand a good cup of tea too, not particularly strong, it is true, but with a fair average allowance of milk and sugar.
Waiter, cried Haco Barepoles in a voice that commanded instant attention.
Yessir.
Soup for two, steaks an taties for ditto to foller.
Yessir.
Please, father, I would like a cup of coffee after the soup instead of a steak. I dont feel very hungry.
All right, lass. Waiter, knock off one o the steaks an clap a cup o coffee in its place.
Yessir. Roll with it, Miss?
Of course, said Haco.
Butter, Miss?
Sartinly. An double allowance o milk an sugar, replied the skipper. Spose you hant got cream?
No sir.
Never mind. Look alive now, lad. Come, Susan, heres a box with only one man int, well Hallo! shiver my timbers if it aintnoit cant beStephen Gaff, eh! or his ghost?
Never mind. Look alive now, lad. Come, Susan, heres a box with only one man int, well Hallo! shiver my timbers if it aintnoit cant beStephen Gaff, eh! or his ghost?
Just so, said Stephen, laying down his knife and fork, and shaking warmly the hand which Haco stretched across the table to him; Im always turnin up now an again like a bad shillin. How goes life with ee, Haco? you dont seem to have multiplied the wrinkles since I last saw ye.
Thank ee, Im pretty comfrable. This is my darter Susan, said Haco, observing that his friend glanced inquiringly at his fair companionThe world always uses me much the same. I find it a roughish customer, but it finds me a jolly one, an not easily put out. When did I see ye last? Let me see,two years come Christmas. Why, Ive been wrecked three times since then, run down twice, an drownded at least half-a-dozen times; but by good luck they always manages to bring me roundrowsussitate me, as the doctors call it.
Ay, youve had hard times of it, observed Gaff, finishing his last morsel of meat, and proceeding to scrape up the remains of gravy and potato with his knife; Ive bin wrecked myself sin we last met, but only once, and that warnt long ago, just the last gale. You coasters are worse off than we are. Commend me to blue water, and plenty o sea-room.
I believe you, my boy, responded the skipper. Theres nothin like a good offing an a tight ship. We stand but a poor chance as we go creepin long shore in them rotten tubs, that are well named Coal-Coffins. Why, if it comes on thick squally weather or a gale when yer dodgin off an on, the Coal-Coffins go down by dozens. Mayhap at the first burst o the gale youre hove on your beam-ends, an away go the masts, leavin ye to drift ashore or sink; or praps youre sharp enough to get in sail, and have all snug, when, just as yere weatherin a headland, away goes the sheet o the jib, jibs blowed to ribbons, an afore ye know where ye are, breakers on the lee bow! is the cry. Another gust, an the rotten foretopsls blowd away, carryin the fore-topmast by the board, which, of course, takes the jib-boom along with it, if it ant gone before. Then its stand by to let go the anchor. Let go! Ay, ay, sir. Down it goes, an the Coffins brought up sharp; not a moment too soon, mayhap, for ten to one but you see an hear the breakers, roarin like mad, thirty yards or so astern. It may be good holdin ground, but what o that?the anchors an old un, or too small; the fluke gives way, and yere adrift; or the cables too small, and cant stand the strain, so you let go both anchors, an yed let go a dozen more if ye had em for dear life; but its o no use. First one an then the other parts; the stern is crushed in amost afore ye can think, an in two minutes more, if not less, its all up with ye, unless theres a lifeboat at hand.
Ah! pity theres not more of em on the coast, said Gaff.
True, rejoined Haco, many a poor fellers saved every year by them blessed boats, as would otherwise have gone to the bottom, an left widder and childer to weep for him, an be a burden, more or less, on the country.
The waiter appeared at this point in the conversation with the soup, so Haco devoted himself to dinner, while Gaff ordered a plate of bread and cheese extra in order to keep him company. For some minutes they all ate in silence. Then Haco, during the interval between the courses, informed Gaff that he expected to return to the port of London in a day or two; whereupon Gaff said that he just happened to be lookin out for a ship goin there, as he had business to do in the great city, and offered to work his way. The skipper readily promised to ship him as an extra hand, if the owner chose to send the Coffin to sea without repairs, which, observed Haco, is not unlikely, for hes a close-fisted customer.