"You will, sir?"

"I fancy there will be no difficulty in arranging about the rent.
And now I want to speak with you on another question. You are a
single man, you say. Have you any employment?"

"Why, sir, I mostly picks up my livin' on the say, on'y I thought as
how I'd like a spell ashore for a change; but the end o' that you saw
for yourself this very a'ternoon."

"Do you think that for a pound a week you could look after me?"

"I'd like the chance."

"That would exclude your food and clothes."

Caleb hesitated for a moment, and then said, with Trojan
independence--

"You beant' a-goin' to rig me out in a yaller weskit an'
small-clothes wi' a stripe down the leg, by any chance?"

"I was proposing that you should dress exactly as you do at present."

"Then done wi' you, sir, an' thank 'ee. When be I to enter on my
dooties?"

"At once."