“Whin he was discharged he was all broke in health, an’ he got good an’ drunk an’ came back t’ say good-bye t’ all hands, for he was a good feller, even in liquor.
“‘Good-bye, O’Toole, an’ may th’ Lord bless an’ prosper ye,’ sez he. An’ thin he shakes hands all around an’ comes aft t’ where th’ officers was sittin’.
“‘Good-bye, Mr. McGraw, an’ may th’ Lord bless an’ prosper ye,’ sez he t’ th’ liftenant. Then he walked up t’ th’ owld man.
“‘Good-bye t’ ye, too, sir,’ sez he. ‘Good-bye, Captain Broadchin, an’ may th’ Lord bless an’ prosper ye, too, sir—but to a damned limited extint!’
“An’ there was a good bo’s’n gone, all because av that Mike. So I made up me mind thin an’ there niver t’ take another man’s sins upon me sowl, nor shield any av his ornery doin’s by mesilf.”
Brown laughed a little at O’Toole’s account, and then said, with more earnestness than I thought the occasion required:
“After all, the bo’s’n did the right thing, for it would have been rather a mean piece of business to have told how the beer came into his possession and gotten the whole watch in trouble.”
“Not a bit av it—it would have saved a good bo’s’n an’ me a lot av rope’s-ending upon th’ hide av that good-for-nothing man, Mike.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” replied Brown, “I don’t think much of a man who won’t shield his friends. Suppose, for instance, you had a good friend or brother, and something occurred that might get him into trouble. Wouldn’t you do what you could to keep him out of it?”
“Now, ’pon me whurd, if ye ain’t entirely out av your reckoning. I’d see him forty fathoms below anywhere at all before I’d risk mesilf.”