sober, accepted a refresher, and made oath to it again, with some lively
particulars added. And the facts that he deposed to, and deposited, were
these:

Being down upon his luck, about a twelvemonth back, he thought of
keeping company with a nice young woman, and settling down until a
better time turned up; and happening to get a month's wages from a
schooner of ninety-five tons at Scarborough, he strolled about the
street a bit, and kept looking down the railings for a servant-girl who
might have got her wages in her work-box. Clean he was, and taut, and
clever, beating up street in Sunday rig, keeping sharp look-out for
a consort, and in three or four tacks he hailed one. As nice a young
partner as a lad could want, and his meaning was to buckle to for the
winter. But the night before the splicing-day, what happened to him he
never could tell after. He was bousing up his jib, as a lad is bound
to do, before he takes the breakers. And when he came to, he was twenty
leagues from Scarborough, on board of his Majesty's recruiting brig the
Harpy. He felt in his pocket for the wedding-ring, and instead of that,
there were these three beads.

Sir Duncan was sorry for his sad disaster, and gave him ten more rupees
to get over it. And then he discovered that the poor forsaken maiden's
name was Sally Watkins. Sally was the daughter of a rich pawnbroker,
whose frame of mind was sometimes out of keeping with its true
contents. He had very fine feelings, and real warmth of sympathy; but
circumstances seemed sometimes to lead them into the wrong channel,
and induced him to kick his children out of doors. In the middle of the
family he kicked out Sally, almost before her turn was come; and
she took a place at 4 pounds a year, to disgrace his memory--as she
said--carrying off these buttons, and the jacket, which he had bestowed
upon her, in a larger interval.

There was no more to be learned than this from the intercepted
bridegroom. He said that he might have no objection to go on with his
love again, as soon as the war was over, leastways, if it was made worth
his while; but he had come across another girl, at the Cape of Good
Hope, and he believed that this time the Lord was in it, for she had
been born in a caul, and he had got it. With such a dispensation Sir
Duncan Yordas saw no right to interfere, but left the course of true
love to itself, after taking down the sailor's name--"Ned Faithful."

However, he resolved to fol