rnal or
internal, you replied both, and a great deal more besides. So she
is--internally, externally, and infernally bad," said the doctor,
laughing. "And so she amputated your father's pigtail, did she, the
Delilah? Pity one could not amputate her head, it would make a good
woman of her. Good-by, Jack; I must go and look after Tom, he's
swallowed a whole yard of stick-liquorice by this time."

Soon afterward Ben the Whaler came in to inquire after my father, and I
told him what had occurred. He was very indignant at my mother's
conduct, and, as soon as the affair was known, so were all the tenants
of Fisher's Alley. When my mother went out, or had words with any of her
neighbors, the retort was invariably, "Who sent the press-gang after her
own husband?" or "Who cut off the tail from her husband's back? Wasn't
that a _genteel_ trick?" All this worried my mother, and she became very
morose and ill-tempered. I believe she would have left the alley if she
had not taken a long lease of the house. She had now imbibed a decided
hatred for me, which she never failed to show upon every occasion, for
she knew that it was I who had roused my father, and prevented her
escape from his wrath. The consequence was that I was seldom at home,
except to sleep. I sauntered to the beach, ran into the water, sometimes
rowed in the wherries, at others hauling them in and holding them steady
for the passengers to land. I was beginning to be useful to the
watermen, and was very often rewarded with a piece of bread and cheese,
or a drink of beer out of their pots. The first year after my father's
visit I was seldom given a meal, and continually beaten--indeed,
sometimes cruelly so--but as I grew stronger, I rebelled and fought, and
with such success that, although I was hated more, I was punished less.

One scene between my mother and me may serve as a specimen for all. I
would come home with my trousers tucked up, and my _high-lows_ unlaced
and full of water, sucking every time that I lifted up my leg, and
marking the white sanded floor of the front room, as I proceeded through
it to the back kitchen. My mother would come downstairs, and perceiving
the marks I had left, would get angry, and as usual commence singing--

"'A frog he would a-wooing go,
Heigho, says Rowly.'

"I see here's that little wretch been here--

"'Whether his mother would let him or no,
Heigho, says Rowly.'

"I'll rowly him with the rolling-pin