240 ALONGSHORE w 



' "Tell anybody !" he says. "What's the good ? 

 Would anybody ha' give'd me a job to go to sea 

 If they'd ha' know'd I wasn't proper up to it — a 

 dying man as you might ha' said then. Would 

 you?" 



'"Don' know as I should," which was true. 

 You can't afford to risk your life to sea wi' a man 

 what isn't up to it, though it has been done often 

 enough 'fore now. 



' "'Sides," he says, "the doctor telled about 

 sending me to one o' they hospital places where 

 you goes an' dies away from everybody you got. 

 I couldn't face thic." 



"They places hain't no good," I says. "'Tis 

 better for to die comfor'able if you got to. But 

 / can't make way for 'ee, an' let my missus an' 

 kids starve for to feed yours." 



' "I knows It," he says. 



' "N'eet any other chap in his senses." 



* "I knows that too, now," he says. "Aye, 

 don' I know It !" 



'An' with the same, he burstis out crying. 

 Fair broke, he was, If ever a man was broke; 

 broke like men be sometimes, an' no fault o' 

 theirs nuther. 



' "Here," I says. "Take a dozen or two of 



