'Oi have not, surr.'
'Well, I believe the Act lays it down that any one spreading false information is liable to a very severe penalty. You don't want to be punished, do you?'
'Oi do not, surr,' said Walley stolidly, quite unable to understand how he had offended. 'Oi've never been a defaulter since I joined the navy.'
'You'll soon get into trouble if you write letters like this,' the padre observed grimly. 'Suppose I took this one to the captain, and asked him to read it? I think you'd find he would regard it as a very serious offence.'
'Oi'm sorry, surr, if Oi've done wrong, surr,' the stoker answered, nervously fidgeting with his cap. 'Oi only wrote a bit of a yarn like t' amuse the missis.'
'To amuse your wife!' ejaculated the chaplain. 'Surely, surely your wife must be feeling a little anxious about you?'
'P'r'aps, surr. Oi don't rightly know,' admitted the culprit. 'P'r'aps she is a bit anxious like, surr.'
'Of course she is, Walley. Any woman is bound to be anxious with her husband at sea in war-time. Tell me now, truthfully, do you really think that a letter like this will make her feel any less anxious? You go into gruesome details of a fight at sea which has never taken place, and expect her to be—er—amused. 'Pon my soul, I've never heard of such a thing.'
'Oi'm sorry, surr. Oi didn't mean no harm.'
The chaplain sighed. 'Well,' he pointed out, 'I consider you acted very wrongly in writing this letter at all; and besides that, you're being very unfair to your wife. After all, she deserves a little consideration—what?'