like it. A week after my arrival there was
to be a fair over at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, and I asked Peggy
whether she would go with me; but she refused, saying that she was
obliged to go to her aunt's out at Limberhook, who was very old, and had
sent for her, so I thought nothing more about the matter. Well, the day
before the fair, as we were busy in the forenoon getting the timber out
of the vessel, one of my shipmates, who went to the same house, says to
me, `I say, Tom, when I was at the Chequers last night, I overheard
Peggy promise to go to the Ryde Fair with that Frenchified smuggling
chap.'

"`Did you?' said I.

"`Yes,' replied he, `and they agreed to start at twelve o'clock, just
after the dockyard bell rang: I thought at the time it was just to give
you the slip before you left the ship, and that she is turning you
over.'

"Well, when I heard this, did not my blood boil? for the hussy had told
me a lie in saying that she was going to her aunt's; and it was evident
that she had done so, that she might go with this other fellow to the
fair. I thought the matter over and over again, for, to tell you the
truth, all I wanted then was revenge. I felt nothing but scorn for a
woman who could act in so base a manner; at the same time I wished to
punish both her and him by spoiling their day's sport; so at last I
determined that I would start right away for the fair myself, and not
only put her to shame, but give her fancy man a good drubbing, which I
was well able to do. So I walks down to Point and gets into a wherry,
keeping a sharp look-out for their coming down from the Hard. At last I
spied them, and then I made the waterman pull away, so as to keep about
three cables' length ahead of them, and thus I continued watching their
billing and cooing, and grinding my teeth with rage, until we had come
over to the other side. Now, you see, Tom, at that time there was no
wooden pier at Ryde as there is now, and when the tide was out there was
such a long flat of mud that there was no landing; so the way it was
managed was, the wherries came in as far as they could, and were met by
a horse and cart, which took out the passengers and carried them through
the mud and water to the hard ground. Well, when I pulled in, the man
was there with his horse and cart, and I paid my fare, and stepped out
of the wherry, expecting the man to drive off and put me on shore; but
he seeing that there was another wherry close