“Perhaps you’d all been drinking an extra glass when you found yourselves so near home.”
“Why, yes. To tell you the truth, we had all of us a little more than usual that night; and yet I’ll defy any man to say that we were not all perfectly sober.”
“But yet, in my way of looking at it,” said Captain Merryweather, “you were the worse for liquor, because less able to have your wits about you. And that’s surely a very serious thing to look at for ourselves, and our employers too; for if we’ve taken just enough to make us less up to our work, we’re the worse for drink, though no man can say we’re drunk. Take my advice, Thomson, and keep clear of the grog altogether, and then you’ll find your luck come back again. You’ll find it better for head, heart, and pocket, take my word for it.”
“I believe you’re right. I’ll think of what you’ve said,” was the reply; and they parted.
“Jacob, my lad,” said Captain Merryweather, as they walked along, “did you hear what Captain Thomson said?”
“Ay, captain; and what you said too. And I’m sure you spoke nothing but the real truth.”
“Well, you just mark that, Jacob. There are scores of accidents and crimes from drunkenness, and they get known, and talked about, and punished; but there are hundreds which come from moderate drinking, or from the drink itself, which are never traced. Ships run foul of one another, trains come into collision, houses get set on fire; and the drink is at the bottom of most of it, I believe, because people get put off their balance, and ain’t themselves, and so get careless, or confused, or excited, and then mischief follows. And yet no one can say they’re drunk; and where are you to draw the line? A man’s the worse for drink long before he’s anything like intoxicated; for it is in the very nature of the drink to fly at once to a man’s brain. Ah, give me the man or lad, Jacob, that takes none. His head is clear, his hand’s steady, his eye is quick. He’s sure not to have taken too much, because he has taken none at all.—But here we are. There lies my good ship, the barque Sabrina. You shall come on board with me at once, and see your quarters.”