en, before I got well into the town--a sea-port
it was--down comed the press-gang an' nabbed me. I showed fight, of
course, just as you did, an floored four of 'em, but they was too many
for me an' before I knowed where I was they had me into a boat and
aboord this here ship, where I've bin ever since. I'm used to it now,
an' rather like it, as no doubt you will come for to like it too; but it
_was_ hard on my old mother. I begged an' prayed them to let me go back
an' bid her good-bye, an' swore I would return, but they only laughed at
me, so I was obliged to write her a letter to keep her mind easy. Of
all the jobs I ever did have, the writin' of that letter was the wust.
Nothin' but dooty would iver indooce me to try it again; for, you see, I
didn't get much in the way of edication, an' writin' never came handy to
me.

"Hows'ever," continued Ben, "I took so kindly to His Majesty's service
that they almost look upon me as an old hand, an' actooally gave me
leave to be the leader o' the gang that was sent to Fairway to take you,
so that I might have a chance o' sayin' adoo to my old mother."

"What!" exclaimed Bowls, "is your mother the old woman who stops at the
end o' Cow Lane, where Mrs Blyth lives, who talks so much about her
big-whiskered Ben?"

"That same," replied Ben, with a smile: "she was always proud o' me,
specially after my whiskers comed. I thought that p'r'aps ye might have
knowed her."

"I knows her by hearsay from Nelly Blyth, but not bein' a native of
Fairway, of course I don't know much about the people.--Hallo! Riggles,
what's wrong with 'e to-day?" said Bill, as his friend Tom came towards
him with a very perplexed expression on his honest face, "not repenting
of havin' joined the sarvice already, I hope?"

"No, I ain't troubled about that," answered Riggles, scratching his chin
and knitting his brows; "but I've got a brother, d'ye see--"

"Nothin' uncommon in that," said Bolter, as the other paused.

"P'r'aps not," continued Tom Riggles; "but then, you see, my brother's
such a preeplexin' sort o' feller, I don't know wot to make of him."

"Let him alone, then," suggested Ben Bolter.

"That won't do neither, for he's got into trouble; but it's a long
story, an' I dessay you won't care to hear about it."

"You're out there, Tom," said Bowls; "come, sit down here and let's have
it all."

The three men sat down on the combings of the fore-hatch, and Tom
Riggles began by telling them