Royal Exchange, and has undergone a variety of hardships at sea. What
d'ye think, now, of his bursting all his sinews, and making his eyes
start out of his head, in pulling his ship off a rock, whereby he saved
to his owners"----Here he was interrupted by the captain, who
exclaimed, "Belay, Tom, belay; pr'ythee, don't veer out such a deal of
jaw. Clap a stopper on thy cable and bring thyself up, my lad--what a
deal of stuff thou has pumped up concerning bursting and starting, and
pulling ships; Laud have mercy upon us!--look ye here, brother--look ye
here--mind these poor crippled joints; two fingers on the starboard, and
three on the larboard hand; crooked, d'ye see, like the knees of a
bilander. I'll tell you what, brother, you seem to be a--ship deep
laden--rich cargo--current setting into the bay--hard gale--lee shore--
all hands in the boat--tow round the headland--self pulling for dear
blood, against the whole crew--snap go the finger-braces--crack went the
eye-blocks. Bounce daylight--flash starlight--down I foundered, dark as
hell--whiz went my ears, and my head spun like a whirligig. That don't
signify--I'm a Yorkshire boy, as the saying is--all my life at sea,
brother, by reason of an old grandmother and maiden aunt, a couple of old
stinking--kept me these forty years out of my grandfather's estate.
Hearing as how they had taken their departure, came ashore, hired horses,
and clapped on all my canvas, steering to the northward, to take
possession of my--But it don't signify talking--these two old piratical--
had held a palaver with a lawyer--an attorney, Tom, d'ye mind me, an
attorney--and by his assistance hove me out of my inheritance. That is
all, brother--hove me out of five hundred pounds a year--that's all--what
signifies--but such windfalls we don't every day pick up along shore.
Fill about, brother--yes, by the L--d! those two smuggling harridans,
with the assistance of an attorney--an attorney, Tom--hove me out of five
hundred a year." "Yes, indeed, sir," added Mr. Clarke, "those two
malicious old women docked the intail, and left the estate to an alien."