The sailor stared round at the group, and then a change came over him and he bent down and gave his hip a sounding slap.
“I’m blest!” he cried, with the angry looks giving place to a broad smile. “I’m blest! I never thought about my legs!”
There was another roar of laughter now, in which Tom Bodger joined.
“But lookye here, messmates, what’s a leg or two? Gone in the sarvice o’ the King and country, I says. Here am I, two-and-thirty, with ninepence a day as long as I live, as good a man as ever I was—good man and true. Who says I arn’t?”
“Nobody here, Tom, old mate,” cried the big fisherman, giving the sailor a hearty slap on the shoulder. “Good mate and true, and as good a neighbour as we’ve got in Rockabie. Eh, lads?”
“Ay, ay!” came in a hearty chorus.
“There, Tom, so say all of us; but none o’ that about no press-gangs, mate,” cried the big fisherman. “The King wants men for his ships, but all on us here has our wives and weans. What was all right for a lad o’ twenty would be all wrong for such as we.”
“Ay, that’s true,” said the sailor, “and I oughtn’t to ha’ said it; but look at Master Aleck here. Them boys—”
“Yes, yes, boys is boys, and allus was and allus will be, as long as there’s land and sea. Some on ’em’ll get a touch o’ rope’s-end after this game, I dessay. Lookye here, Master Aleck Donne, you come up to my place, and the missus’ll find you a tin bowl o’ water, a bit o’ soap, and a clean towel. You won’t hurt after a wash, but be able to go home as proud as a tom rooster. You licked your man, and the captain’ll feel proud of you, for Big Jem was too much of a hard nut for such a chap as you. Come on, my lad.”
“No, no, thank you,” said Aleck, warmly; “I want to get back home now. I don’t want to show Mrs Joney a face like this.”