'cause you're just as like as two peas
to your dear mother, what went to the bottom in the last coal-coffin I
commanded, an' you would ha' gone too, darlin', if I hadn't bin spared
to swim ashore with ye on my back. It was all I could do. Ah, Susan!
it was a black night for you an' me that. Well, as I was a sayin',
you're as like yer mother as two peas, and she was as trustful as you
are, an' little knew wot a bad lot she got when she set her heart on
me."

"Father, that's not true."

"Ain't it, lass? Well, let it pass, but then this feller, this Dan
Hursey--"

"Horsey, father," said Susan.

"Well, well, it ain't much better; this Horsey is an Irishman, an' I
don't like Irishmen."

"Father, you'd get to like 'em if you only knew 'em better," said Susan
earnestly. "What bell's that?" she added, as a loud ringing echoed
through the house.

"The dinner bell, lass. Come an' see wot a comf'rable feed they git. I
can tell 'ee that them Sailors' Homes is the greatest blessin' that was
ever got up for us sea-dogs. We ain't 'xactly such soft good natur'd
ignorant big babies as some o' your well-meanin' pheelanthropists would
make us out; but we _are_ uncommon hard put to it when we git ashore,
for every port is alive with crimps an' land-sharks to swaller us up
when we come off a long voyage; an' the wust of it is, that we're in a
wild reckless humour for the most part when we git ashore with our
pockets full o' yellow boys, an' are too often quite willin' to _be_
swallered up, so that lots of us are constantly a-goin' to sticks an'
stivers. An' then before the Homes was set a-goin', the fellers as
wanted to get quiet lodgin's didn't find it easy to know where to look
for 'em, an' was often took in; an' when they wanted to send cash to
their wives or mothers, they didn't well know how to manage it; but now,
wherever there's a Home you can git cheap board, good victuals, help in
the way o' managin' yer cash, an' no end of advice gratis. It's only a
pity there ain't one or two of 'em in every port in the kingdom.

"See here," continued Haco, warming with his subject as he led Susan
past the dormitories where the Russians, who had been maimed during the
recent wrecks, were being supplied with dinner in their berths, "see
here,--another o' the best o' the institootions o' this land looks arter
them poor fellers, an' pays their shot for 'em as long as they're here,
an' sends them to their homes free of expense--th