“Come, heave a-head, my lads, be smart. The captain says we are to take the young gentleman on board directly. His liberty’s stopped for getting drunk and running after the Dolly Mops!”
“I should thank you to be more respectful in your remarks, Mr Coxswain,” said I with displeasure.
“Mister Coxswain! thanky, sir, for giving me a handle to my name,” replied he. “Come, be smart with your oars, my lads!”
“La, Bill Freeman,” said a young woman on the beach, “what a nice young gentleman you have there. He looks like a sucking Nelson. I say, my pretty young officer, could you lend me a shilling?”
I was so pleased at the woman calling me young Nelson, that I immediately complied with her request. “I have not a shilling in my pocket,” said I, “but here is half-a-crown, and you can change it, and bring me back the eighteen-pence.”
“Well you are a nice young man,” replied she, taking the half-crown; “I’ll be back directly, my dear.”
The men in the boat laughed, and the coxswain desired them to shove off.
“No,” observed I, “you must wait for my eighteen-pence.”
“We shall wait a devilish long while, then, I suspect. I know that girl, and she has a very bad memory.”
“She cannot be so dishonest or ungrateful,” replied I. “Coxswain, I order you to stay—I am an officer.”