I never did see a set of men look more foolish in my life than ours did that night; and first one and then another slipped into his work, till all were busy; while them two half-crowns lay on the table winking and shining in the gaslight, and not a man had the face to come forward to pick them up and send for the beer.
Last of all, it was getting towards seven, when, now quite cool, the young chap beckons one of the boys and sends him out for two gallons and a half of sixpenny; and when it came, goes himself and pours for the whole shop, even offering the pot to Bill Smith; but he wouldnt take it, but growled out something, when the whole shop laughed at him again, and the rest of that evening he got chaffed awfully.
Next
morning Id been thinking how to get some fresh sheets stitched in the young chaps books, so as to be as little expense as possible, and when I got to the shop he was there looking at his heap, when I found that though working men do wrong sometimes, theres the real English grit in them; and here, before we came, if the chaps hadnt walked off the damaged copies, shared them amongst em, and put fresh ones from their own heaps, so as it never cost my young mate a shilling.
But its a bad system, men. Have your beer if you like, but dont ask a poor hard-up fellow to rob self, wife, and child to pay his footing.
Chapter Two. Aboard a Light-Ship
Light-ship? yes, theres one out yonder. No, not that thats one o the harbour lights. Out more to sea. There, you cant see her now; but if you take a look youll see her directly. Not the ship, o course, but the light. There; thats her, bo. Dont you see her? Thats a revolving light. Goes round and round, you know, so that sometimes you see it, and sometimes you dont; and thats on the top of a mast aboard a light-ship, moored head and starn on the sands, two mile out; and sooner than spend a night aboard her when theres a storm on, Id go out to fifty wrecks.
Pretty sight that, aint it? Surprises many people as comes to the sea-side. Seems as if the seas on fire, dont it? There now, watch that boat as the oars dip quite gives flashes o light. But that aint nothing, that aint, to what Ive seen abroad. I was in one of the Queens frigates out in the Pacific, and when we lay in the harbour at Callao one night, the officers had a ball on board, and we chaps had plenty to do taking the ladies backwards and forwards. Well, when it was over we in the first cutter were taking a party ashore officers and ladies when they were singing, and so on, and they made us pull slowly, for it was just as if the whole bay was afire, and when we dipped the flash was enough to light up all our faces with the soft pale light.
But you should be out in the light-ship there for a night when theres a heavy sea on and the waves makes a clean breach over you. Its a dull life out there at any time, for theres not much to do only the light to keep trimmed and the glass and reflectors well polished. When I was there we used to pass the time away making models of ships and rigging them, or doing any little nick-nack jobs as took our fancies. Four of us used to be there at a time; and when the dark winters night was setting in, and the wind and sea getting up, you couldnt help feeling melancholy and low. The place we were in, you see, was a dangerous one, and one where there had been no end of wrecks; while in more than one place you could see the timbers of a half broke-up ship, lying stuck in the sands. Then, as it got dark, and you stood on deck, you could almost fancy the tall white waves were the ghosts of them as had gone down and been lost there hundreds upon hundreds of them; and that puts me in mind of one night when a full-rigged ship came on the sands.
It was a horribly rough afternoon, with a heavy gale blowing; cold, and dark, and dismal it looked all round, and there we were watching this here ship trying hard to give the sands a wide berth, but all to no good, for there she was slowly drifting down nearer and nearer now lost to sight almost in the fog and spray, and now when it lifted, plain again before us, till she seemed close in amongst the heavy surf.
At times our light-ship, heavily moored and strong-built as she was, pitched and strained dreadful, so that it seemed as she must drag or break away,
while every now and then a wave would come with such a shock that the heavy timbers quivered again; and of us four men there, every one would have gladly been ashore, and out of those fierce roaring breakers. But no one showed the white feather, and there we were, as I said, watching the big ship, till just as the gloomy winters night set in, and the gale came shouting by as though the storm meant to make a night of it, we saw the ship for a moment, lost sight of her again, and then, just as there was a bit of an opening in the fog, there she came with a regular leap starn on to the sands, and snap, snap, two of her masts went overboard in an instant.
We had to hold on pretty tightly ourselves, I can tell you, and the water that came aboard at times almost choked us; but with such a scene as that before us, not a man could have gone below, and we stood straining our eyes and trying to make out what was going on.