“Come along, youngster, then,” said the tall seaman; and, without waiting for my reply, he seized me by the arm, and began to move off with me through the crowd.
“But what will be done with poor father? Sure I cannot leave him now!” I exclaimed, looking back with anguish at my father’s corpse.
“Oh, we’ll see all about that,” answered my new friend; “he shall be waked in proper style, and have a decent funeral; so you may leave home with a clear conscience. Never fear!”
I need not dwell longer on the events of that sad day. Aided by some of the men who knew my father, and who returned to the tent after the fray was over, the kind-hearted seamen bore the corpse to our cottage. The promise of a supply of whisky easily induced some of the neighbours to come and howl during the livelong night. This they did with right good will, although my father was a Protestant and a foreigner; and I cried and howled in sympathy. I would fain, however, have forgotten my grief in sleep. The seamen had taken their departure, promising to return to look after me.
As there was no chance of a man with a fractured skull coming to life again, the funeral speedily took place. The small quantity of furniture remaining in the cottage was sold; but the proceeds were barely sufficient to pay the expenses.
Thus I was left, with the exception of a suit of somewhat ragged clothes on my back, as naked and poor as when I came into the world about twelve years before, with a much more expensive appetite than I then had to supply. Some boys at that age are well able to take care of themselves, but, as I have said, I was small for my years, and I had been kept by my poor mother so much by myself, that I knew nothing of the world and its ways.
Alter the funeral a compassionate neighbour, with a dozen or more children of her own to feed, took me to her house till it was settled what was to become of me. She and her husband laughed at the idea of the tall sailor coming to take me away.
“I know what sailors are,” said the husband; “they’ll just chuck a handful of silver to the first beggar who asks them for it, and then they’ll go away and forget all about it! Maybe your friend was only after joking with you, and is off to sea long ago!”
“Oh no! he meant what he said,” I replied; “I know that by the look of his face. He’s a kind man, I’m certain!”
“It may be better for us all if he comes, but it’s not very likely,” was the answer. Still I trusted that my new friend would not deceive me.