The Project Gutenberg EBook of Keeping Watch, by W.W. Jacobs

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Title: Keeping Watch
Night Watches, Part 2.

Author: W.W. Jacobs

Release Date: April 26, 2004 [EBook #12152]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KEEPING WATCH ***

Produced by David Widger

NIGHT WATCHES

by W.W. Jacobs

KEEPING WATCH

"Human natur'!" said the night-watchman, gazing fixedly at a pretty
girl in a passing waterman's skiff. "Human natur'!"

He sighed, and, striking a match, applied it to his pipe and sat smoking
thoughtfully.

"The young fellow is pretending that his arm is at the back of her by
accident," he continued; "and she's pretending not to know that it's
there. When he's allowed to put it round 'er waist whenever he wishes,
he won't want to do it. She's artful enough to know that, and that's
why they are all so stand-offish until the thing is settled. She'll
move forward 'arf an inch presently, and 'arf a minute arterwards she'll
lean back agin without thinking. She's a nice-looking gal, and what she
can see in a tailor's dummy like that, I can't think."

He leaned back on his box and, folding his arms, emitted a cloud of
smoke.

"Human natur's a funny thing. I've seen a lot of it in my time, and if
I was to 'ave my life all over agin I expect I should be just as silly
as them two in the skiff. I've known the time when I would spend money
as free over a gal as I would over myself. I on'y wish I'd got all the
money now that I've spent on peppermint lozenges.

"That gal in the boat reminds me o' one I used to know a few years ago.
Just the same innercent baby look--a look as if butter wouldn't melt in
'er mouth--and a artful disposition that made me sorry for 'er sects.

"She used to come up to this wharf once a week in a schooner called the
Belle. Her father, Cap'n Butt, was a widow-man, and 'e used to bring
her with 'im, partly for company and partly because 'e could keep 'is
eye on her. Nasty eye it, was, too, when he 'appened to be out o'
temper.

"I'd often took a bit o' notice o' the gal; just giving 'er a kind smile
now and then as she sat on deck, and sometim