great wide sea.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

THE RETURN.

Arthur Jollyboy, Esquire, of the Old Hulk, sat on the top of a tall
three-legged stool in his own snug little office in the sea-port town of
Bilton, with his legs swinging to and fro; his socks displayed a
considerable way above the tops of his gaiters; his hands thrust deep
into his breeches pockets; his spectacles high on his bald forehead, and
his eyes looking through the open letter that lay before him; through
the desk underneath it; through the plank floor, cellars and foundations
of the edifice; and through the entire world into the distant future
beyond.

"Four thousand pair of socks," he murmured, pulling down his spectacles
and consulting the open letter for the tenth time: "four thousand pair
of socks, with the hitch, same as last bale, but a very little coarser
in material."

"Four thousand pair! and who's to make them, I wonder. If poor Mrs
Dorothy Grumbit were here--ah! well, she's gone, so it can't be helped.
Four thousand!--dear me who _will_ make them. Do _you_ know?"

This question was addressed to his youngest clerk, who sat on the
opposite side of the desk staring at Mr Jollyboy with that open
impudence of expression peculiar to young puppy-dogs whose masters are
unusually indulgent.

"No, sir, I don't," said the clerk with a broad grin.

Before the perplexed merchant could come at any conclusion on this
knotty subject the door opened and Martin Rattler entered the room,
followed by his friend Barney O'Flannagan.

"You've come to the wrong room, friends," said Mr Jollyboy with a
benignant smile. "My principal clerk engages men and pays wages. His
office is just opposite; first door in the passage."

"We don't want to engage," said Martin; "we wish to speak with you,
sir."

"Oh, beg pardon!" cried Mr Jollyboy, leaping off the stool with
surprising agility for a man of his years. "Come in this way. Pray be
seated--Eh! ah, surely I've seen you before, my good fellow?"

"Yis, sir, that ye have. I've sailed aboard your ships many a time. My
name's Barney O'Flannagan, at yer sarvice."

"Ah! I recollect; and a good man you are, I've been told, Barney; but I
have lost sight of you for some years. Been on a long voyage, I
suppose?"

"Well, not 'xactly; but I've been on a long cruise, an' no mistake, in
the woods o' Brazil I wos wrecked on the coast there, in the Firefly."

"Ah, to be sure. I remember. And your young messma