sed it over.

"We never know what may happen to us," said the old man, solemnly, as he
rose and buttoned his coat. "I'm an old man and I like to have things
ship-shape. I've spent nearly the whole day with my lawyer, and if
anything 'appens to my old carcass it won't make any difference. I have
left half my money to George; half of all I have is to be his."

In the midst of an awed silence he went round and shook hands.

"The other half," with his hand on the door--"the other half and my best
gold watch and chain I have left to my dear young pal, Charlie Hills.
Good-bye, Georgie!"

"MANNERS MAKYTH MAN"

The night-watchman appeared to be out of sorts. His movements were even
slower than usual, and, when he sat, the soap-box seemed to be unable to
give satisfaction. His face bore an expression of deep melancholy, but a
smouldering gleam in his eye betokened feelings deeply moved.

"Play-acting I don't hold with," he burst out, with sudden ferocity.
"Never did. I don't say I ain't been to a theayter once or twice in my
life, but I always come away with the idea that anybody could act if they
liked to try. It's a kid's game, a silly kid's game, dressing up and
pretending to be somebody else."

He cut off a piece of tobacco and, stowing it in his left cheek, sat
chewing, with his lack-lustre eyes fixed on the wharves across the river.
The offensive antics of a lighterman in mid-stream, who nearly fell
overboard in his efforts to attract his attention, he ignored.

"I might ha' known it, too," he said, after a long silence. "If I'd only
stopped to think, instead o' being in such a hurry to do good to others,
I should ha' been all right, and the pack o' monkey-faced swabs on the
_Lizzie and Annie_ wot calls themselves sailor-men would 'ave had to 'ave
got something else to laugh about. They've told it in every pub for 'arf
a mile round, and last night, when I went into the Town of Margate to get
a drink, three chaps climbed over the partition to 'ave a look at me.

"It all began with young Ted Sawyer, the mate o' the _Lizzie and Annie_.
He calls himself a mate, but if it wasn't for 'aving the skipper for a
brother-in-law 'e'd be called something else, very quick. Two or three
times we've 'ad words over one thing and another, and the last time I
called 'im something that I can see now was a mistake. It was one o'
these 'ere clever things that a man don't forget, let alone a lop-sided
monkey like 'im.