Part 70 (1/2)
”All right! do you call it. I never meant to quarrel with the old woman; what d'ye think, Bob--is it all right?”
”Why, you must either have quarrelled with her, or married her, that's clear.”
”Well, then, I'm clear of her, and so it's all right. It a'n't every man who can get out of matrimony by sacrificing a nosegay and two gla.s.ses of grog.”
”Tree gla.s.ses, Ma.s.sa c.o.c.kle,” said Moons.h.i.+ne.
”Well, three gla.s.ses; here it is, you dog, and it's dog cheap, too.
Thank G.o.d, next Wednesday's quarter-day. Bob, you must dine with me--cut the service for to-day.”
”With all my heart,” replied I, ”and I'll salve my conscience by walking the beach all night; but, c.o.c.kle, look here, there is but a drop in the bottle, and you have no more. I am like you, with a clean swept hold.
You acknowledge the difficulty?”
”It stares me in the face, Bob; what must be done?”
”I'll tell you--in the first place, what have you for dinner?”
”Moons.h.i.+ne, what have we got for dinner?”
”Dinner, sar?--me not yet tink about dinner. What you like to ab, sar?”
”What have we got in the house, Moons.h.i.+ne?”
”Let me see, sar; first place, we ab very fine piece picklum pork; den we hab picklum pork; and den--let me tink--den we ab, we hab picklum pork, sar.”
”The long and the short of it is, Bob, that we have nothing but a piece of pickled pork; can you dine off that?”
”Can a duck swim, c.o.c.kle?”
”Please, sar, we ab plenty pea for _dog baddy_,” said Moons.h.i.+ne.
”Well, then, c.o.c.kle, as all that is required is to put the pot on the fire, you can probably spare Moons.h.i.+ne, after he has done that, and we will look to the cookery; start him off with a note to Mr Johns, and he can bring back a couple of bottles from my quarters.”
”Really dat very fine tought, Ma.s.sa Farren; I put in pork, and den I go and come back in one hour.”
”That you never will, Mr Moons.h.i.+ne; what's o'clock now? mercy on us, how time flies in your company, c.o.c.kle, it is nearly four o'clock, it will be dark at six.”
”Nebber mind, sar, me always ab _moons.h.i.+ne_ whereber I go,” said the black, showing his teeth.
”It will take two hours to boil the pork, Bob; that fellow has been so busy this morning that he has quite forgot the dinner.”
”All you business, Ma.s.sa c.o.c.kle.”
”Very true; but now start as soon as you can, and come back as soon as you can; here's the note.”
Moons.h.i.+ne took the note, looked at the direction, as if he could read it, and in a few minutes he was seen to depart.
”And now, c.o.c.kle,” said I, ”as Moons.h.i.+ne will be gone some time, suppose you spin us a yarn to pa.s.s away the time.”
”I'll tell you what, Bob, I am not quite so good at that as I used to be. I've an idea that when my pate became bald, my memory oozed away by insensible perspiration.”