as free over a gal as I would over myself. I on'y wish I'd got all the
money now that I've spent on peppermint lozenges.

"That gal in the boat reminds me o' one I used to know a few years ago.
Just the same innercent baby look--a look as if butter wouldn't melt in
'er mouth--and a artful disposition that made me sorry for 'er sects.

"She used to come up to this wharf once a week in a schooner called the
Belle. Her father, Cap'n Butt, was a widow-man, and 'e used to bring
her with 'im, partly for company and partly because 'e could keep 'is
eye on her. Nasty eye it, was, too, when he 'appened to be out o'
temper.

"I'd often took a bit o' notice o' the gal; just giving 'er a kind smile
now and then as she sat on deck, and sometimes--when 'er father wasn't
looking--she'd smile back. Once, when 'e was down below, she laughed
right out. She was afraid of 'im, and by and by I noticed that she
daren't even get off the ship and walk up and down the wharf without
asking 'im. When she went out 'e was with 'er, and, from one or two
nasty little snacks I 'appened to overhear when the skipper thought I
was too far away, I began to see that something was up.

"It all came out one evening, and it only came out because the skipper
wanted my help. I was standing leaning on my broom to get my breath
back arter a bit o' sweeping, when he came up to me, and I knew at once,
by the nice way 'e spoke, that he wanted me to do something for 'im.

"'Come and 'ave a pint, Bill,' he ses.

"I put my broom agin the wall, and we walked round to the Bull's Head