BILL’S PAPER CHASE
Sailormen ‘ave their faults, said the night watchman, frankly. I’m not denying of it. I used to ‘ave myself when I was at sea, but being close with their money is a fault as can seldom be brought ag’in ‘em.
I saved some money once—two golden sovereigns, owing to a ‘ole in my pocket. Before I got another ship I slept two nights on a doorstep and ‘ad nothing to eat, and I found them two sovereigns in the lining o’ my coat when I was over two thousand miles away from the nearest pub.
I on’y knew one miser all the years I was at sea. Thomas Geary ‘is name was, and we was shipmates aboard the barque Grenada, homeward bound from Sydney to London.
Thomas was a man that was getting into years; sixty, I think ‘e was, and old enough to know better. ‘E’d been saving ‘ard for ov
