Himself and Harry also took a little of the brandy. And Thomas, pressed to begin, cleared his throat and commenced:
"Well, Mr. Frank and Mr. Mortimer, I don't mind letting you into the secret, but the fact is every time I think of the old rascal's indecency it makes my cock stand, but you must not tell a soul what I now tell you."
"All right, go on, old fellow, just a drop more brandy to encourage your bashfulness, eh!" laughed Frank.
Thomas, wiping his mouth after a good swig at the brandy and water: "Well, sirs, that righteous old sinner, as an Irishman would say, began by asking me questions about who made me. If I knew there was a God and a Devil. Then about the world and the flesh, and so on, a lot of rubbish out of the church prayerbook. 'You know, Thomas, my boy,' he said, 'that the "flesh" means having to do with girls and other dirty indecent things which come into the heads of rude boys. Now tell me if you ever did anything of that kind with other boys or girls?'
"This was rather a poser for me. I didn't like to tell a downright lie and knew I had been a party to one or two little games of that sort, such as we used to do in the hayfield, throwing the girls down, turning up their clothes, and showing them our cocks, which no doubt the old rascal knew. I could feel my face was turning quite red with confusion. 'Ha, I see what it is, Thomas! I must thoroughly examine you and tell by the look of your penis' (that is the word I think he used, but you know he meant my cock), as he ordered me to unbutton and show him my privates, and he would soon tell if I had been up to any of the Devil's wickedness.
"As soon as I was exposed to him he told me to draw the skin of my cock back, which I did.
"'Do it again, my boy, there now, again—two or three times mind.'
"Then I expect he saw slight signs of a rise, saying, 'Do it quicker—quicker, boy' till I had the horn quite stiff.
"'My gracious! You're finely grown for your age, Thomas. Now did you never show that to a gal?'
"'Well, sir,' I said, rather shamefaced at what he was making me do, 'I did once, but only once, sir, and Polly Jones felt it with her hand, and let me feel what her cock was like, too.'