"You provide a roof to shelter them?"
"Aye—such as it is—needs re-thatchin' bad."
"And are you happy?"
"Aye, I am—though times is 'ard."
"And pray what is your name?"
"Martin, sir—Thomas Martin."
"Then, Thomas Martin, you are a man—and a better, a far better man than I, for—hear me confess, Tom Martin, I have never performed any one of these man's virtues. You have done nobly!" And I thrust five guineas into his work-hardened palm.
"Well drown'd me!" he gasped, very much as if he were undergoing that watery ordeal. "Egad, sir! Lord love your eyes an' limbs—"
"For the children and their mother," said I.
"God bless ye, sir!"