he'd put a goulden soverin in it."

"Wisht he was here!" murmured a voice from a bunk near the
knightheads.

"Pawthrick," drawled the voice from the hammock above, "what'd
you do first if you found y'self with twenty pound in your
pocket?"

"What's the use of askin' me?" replied Mr Button. "What's the use
of twenty pound to a sayman at say, where the grog's all wather
an' the beef's all horse? Gimme it ashore, an' you'd see what I'd
do wid it!"

"I guess the nearest grog-shop keeper wouldn't see you comin' for
dust," said a voice from Ohio.

"He would not," said Mr Button; "nor you afther me. Be damned to
the grog and thim that sells it!"

"It's all darned easy to talk," said Ohio. "You curse the grog at sea
when you can't get it; set you ashore, and you're bung full."

"I likes me dhrunk," said Mr Button, "I'm free to admit; an' I'm the
divil when it's in me, and it'll be the end of me yet, or me ould
mother was a liar. `Pat,' she says, first time I come home from
say rowlin', `storms you may escape, an wimmen you may escape,
but the potheen 'ill have you.' Forty year ago--forty year ago!"

"Well," said Ohio, "it hasn't had you yet."