Part 1 (1/2)
Cutlass and Cudgel
by George Manville Fenn
CHAPTER ONE
”Heigh-Ho-Ha-Hum! Oh dear me!”
”What's ; only, heigh-ho-ha! Oh dear me, how sleepy I am!”
”Well, sir, I wouldn't open my mouth like that 'ere, 'fore the sun's up”
”Why not?”
”No knohat you y, stony coast”
”There you go again, dick; not so good as Lincolnshi+re coast, I suppose?”
”As good, sir? Why, how can it be?” said the broad, sturdy sailor addressed ”Nothin' but great high stony rocks, full o' beds of great flat periwinkles and whelks; nowhere to land, nothin' to see I am surprised at you, sir Why, there arn't ayour nasty old flat sandy shore, with its s and fens”
”Wish I was ' 'em now, sir Wild ducks there, as is fit to eat, not iley fishy things like these here”
”Oh, bother! Wish I could have had another hour or two's sleep I say, Dirty dick, are you sure the watch wasn't called too soon?”
”Nay, sir, not a bit; and, beggin' your pardon, sir, if you wouldn't mind easin' off the Dirty--dick's much easier to say”
”Oh, very well, dick Don't be so thin-skinned about a nickname”
”That's it, sir I arn't a bit thin-skinned Why, my skin's as thick as one of our beasts I can't help it lookin' brown Washes myself deal e and curious how a name o' that kind sticks”
”Oh, I say, don't talk so,” said the lad by the rough sailor's side; and after another yawn he began to stride up and down the deck of His Majesty's cutter _White Hawk_, lying about a mile from the Freestone coast of Wessex
It was soon after daybreak, the sea was perfectly cal the deck and cordage wet and the air chilly, while the coast, with its vast walls of perpendicular rocks, looked weird and distant where a peep could be obtained ast the wreaths of vapour
”Don't knohen I felt so hungry,” muttered the lad, as he thrust his hands into his breeches pockets, and stopped near the sailor, who s, handsome face
”Ah, you alere a one to yeat, sir, ever since you first came aboard”
”You're a noodle, dick Who wouldn't be hungry, fetched out of his cot at this ti the watch! Bother the watch! Go and get ood fellow”
The sailor showed his white teeth, and took out a brass box
”Can't get no biscuit yet, sir Have a bit o' this Keeps off the gnawin's wonderful”