ay, his head was right
again, and he began to ask for something to eat--leastways to drink,
first. But Aileen wouldn't give him any of that, and very little to eat.
Starlight had told her what to do in case he wanted what wasn't good for
him, and as she was pretty middling obstinate, like himself, she took
her own ways.

After this he began to get right; it wasn't easy to kill old dad. He
seemed to be put together with wire and whip-cord; not made of flesh and
blood like other men. I don't wonder old England's done so much and gone
so far with her soldiers and sailors if they was bred like him. It's my
notion if they was caught young, kept well under command, and led by men
they respected, a regiment or a man-of-war's crew like him would knock
smoke out of any other thousand men the world could put up. More's the
pity there ain't some better way of keeping 'em straight than there is.

He was weak for a bit--very weak; he'd lost a deal of blood; and, try
how he would, he couldn't stand up long at a time, and had to give in
and lie down in spite of himself. It fretted him a deal, of course; he'd
never been on his back before, and he couldn't put up with it. Then his
temper began to show again, and Aileen had a deal to bear and put up
with.

We'd got a few books, and there was the papers, of course, so she used
to read to him by the hour together. He was very fond of hearing about
things, and, like a good many men that can't read and write, he was
clever enough in his own way. When she'd done all the newspapers--they
were old ones (we took care not to get any fresh ones, for fear she'd
see about Hagan and the others)--she used to read about battles and
sea-fights to him; he cared about them more than anything, and one
night, after her reading to him about the battle of Trafalgar, he turned
round to her and says, 'I ought to have been in that packet, Ailie, my
girl. I was near going for a sailor once, on board a man-o'-war, too.
I tried twice to get away to sea, that was before I'd snared my first
hare, and something stopped me both times. Once I was fetched back and
flogged, and pretty nigh starved. I never did no good afterwards. But
it's came acrost me many and many a time that I'd been a different sort
o' chap if I'd had my will then. I was allays fond o' work, and there
couldn't be too much fightin' for me; so a man-o'-war in those days
would have been just the thing to straighten me. That was the best
chance I ever