it (there are many teetotallers now), “bare” can never be regarded as an enemy. Posh did not think any excuse was necessary for having had, perhaps, more than he could conveniently carry. It was his last day ashore (though I can’t quite understand what fishing he was going on unless the herring came down earlier than they do now), and he was “injyin’ of hisself.” In the old days they took a cask or so aboard. This is never done now, and the chief drink aboard is cocoa (pronounced, as FitzGerald writes, “cuckoo”). Posh no doubt thought himself hard done by that such a fuss should have been made about a “drarp o’ bare.” He doubtless wished that FitzGerald should forgive him. For, despite his conduct, he did, I truly believe, love his “guv’nor.” As for the father and mother, well, they smoothed down the “gennleman” and sympathised with their son according to their kind and to mother nature. The Direction to FitzGerald’s Heirs, which he
refers to, is still in existence, and reads as follows:—
“Lowestoft, January 20th, 1870.
“I hereby desire my Heirs executors and Assigns not to call in the Principal of any Mortgage by which Joseph Fletcher the younger of Lowestoft stands indebted to me; provided he duly pays the Interest thereon; does his best to pay off the Principal; and does his best also to keep up the value of the Property so mortgaged until he pays it off.
“This I hereby desire and enjoin on my heirs executors or assigns solemnly as any provision made by Word or Deed while . . . [word missing] any other legal document.
“Edward FitzGerald.”
This solemn injunction was written on a sheet of note-paper, and in the fold, over a sixpenny stamp, FitzGerald wrote: “This paper I now endorse again on legal stamp,
so as to give it the authority I can. Edward FitzGerald, July 31, 1870.”
Surely never man had so kind and considerate a friend as Posh had in FitzGerald!
CHAPTER XVI
THE SALE OF THE SCANDAL
Though the partnership was over, FitzGerald by no means gave up his friendship for Posh. From time to time he saw him, and from time to time he wrote to him, and always he retained the affection for the longshoreman which had sprung up in him so suddenly and (I fear) so unaccountably.
On February 5th, 1871, FitzGerald wrote to Mr. Spalding (Two Suffolk Friends, p. 121):—
“. . . Posh and his Father are very busy getting the Meum and Tuum ready for the West; Jemmy, who goes Captain, is just now in France with a Cargoe of salt Herrings. I suppose the Lugger will start in a fortnight or so. . . . All-fours at night.”