"I want to do a pore chap a good turn," said Dan, watching them narrowly
out of his little black eyes, "an' I want you to help me; an' the boy
too. It's never too young to do good to your fellow-creatures, Billy."
"I know it ain't," said Billy, taking this as permission to join the
group; "I helped a drunken man home once when I was only ten years old,
an' when I was only--"
The speaker stopped, not because he had come to the end of his remarks,
but because one of the seamen had passed his arm around his neck and was
choking him.
"Go on," said the man calmly; "I've got him. Spit it out, Dan, and none
of your sermonising."
"Well, it's like this, Joe," said the old man; "here's a pore chap, a
young sojer from the depot here, an' he's cut an' run. He's been in
hiding in a cottage up the road two days, and he wants to git to London,
and git honest work and employment, not shooting, an' stabbing, an'
bayoneting--"
"Stow it," said Joe impatiently.
"He daren't go to the railway station, and he dursen't go outside in his
uniform," continued Dan. "My 'art bled for the pore young feller, an'
I've promised to give 'im a little trip to London with us. The people
he's staying with won't have him no longer. They've only got one bed,
and directly he sees any sojers coming he goes an' gits into it, whether
he's got his boots on or not.
Pages:
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54