"A damn isn't worth a shilling," said Patsy. "You can have them from me at two for a ha'penny, and there's lots of people would give them to yourself for nothing, you rotten old robber of the world! And if I had the lump of twist back that I gave you a couple of minutes ago I'd put it in my pocket, so I would, and I'd sit on it."
"Don't forget that you're talking about old things," said Billy the Music.
"If I was one of your men," shouted Patsy, "you wouldn't have treated me that way."
Billy the Music smiled happily at him.
"Wouldn't I?" said he, with his head on one side.
"You would not," said Patsy, "for I'd have broken your skull with a spade."
"If you had been one of my men," the other replied mildly, "you'd have been as tame as a little kitten; you'd have crawled round me with your hat in your hand and your eyes turned up like a dying duck's, and you'd have said, 'Yes, sir,' and 'No, sir,' like the other men that I welted the stuffing out of with my two fists, and broke the spirits of with labour and hunger. Don't be talking now, for you're an ignorant man in these things, although you did manage to steal a clocking hen off me the day I was busy."
"And a pair of good boots," said Patsy triumphantly.
"Do you want to hear the rest of the story?"
"I do so," said Patsy; "and I take back what I said about the tobacco; here's another bit of it for your pipe."