shoulders, and that I'd do it if he came to me
with his 'structions or anything else.

"By this time I'd settled down to work on the shore, and had got the
name of Surly Joe. Rightly enough, too. I had one of them planks with
wheels that people use to get in and out of the boats; and as the
boatmen on the shore was all good to me, being sorry for my loss, and
so telling my story to people as went out with them, I got enough to
live on comfortable, only there was nothing comfortable about me. I
wouldn't speak a word, good or bad, to a soul for days together,
unless it was to swear at anyone as tried to talk to me. I hated
everyone, and myself wuss nor all. I was always cussing the rocks that
didn't kill me, and wondering how many years I'd got to go on at this
work before my turn came. Fortunately I'd never cared for drink; but
sometimes I'd find my thoughts too hard for me, and I'd go and drink
glass after glass till I tumbled under the table.

"At first my old mates tried to get me round, and made offers to me to
take a share in their boats, or to make one in a fishing voyage; but I
would not hear them, and in time they dropped off one by one, and left
me to myself, and for six years there wasn't a surlier,
wuss-conditioned, lonelier chap, not in all England, than I was. Well,
sir, one day--it was just at the beginning of the season, but was too
rough a day for sailing--I was a-sitting down on the steps of a
machine doing nothing, just wondering and wondering why things was as
they was, when two little gals cum up. One was, maybe, five, and the
other a year younger. I didn't notice as they'd just cum away from the
side of a lady and gentleman. I never did notice nothing that didn't
just concern me; but I did see that they had a nurse not far off. The
biggest girl had great big eyes, dark and soft, and she looked up into
my face, and held out a broken wooden spade and a bit of string, and
says she, 'Sailor-man, please mend our spade.' I was struck all of a
heap like; for though I had been mighty fond of little children in the
old days, and was still always careful of lifting them into boats, my
name and my black looks had been enough, and none of them had spoken
to me for years. I felt quite strange like when that child spoke out
to me, a'most like what I've read Robinson Crusoe, he as was wrecked
on the island, felt when he saw the mark of a foot.

"I goes to hold out my hand, and then I draws it back, and says,
gr