f you're a sailor, an't you ashamed to own it? A begging
sailor is a disgrace to an honourable profession, for which the country
has provided an asylum as glorious as it is deserved.

_Sailor._ Why so it has: but I an't bound for Greenwich yet.

_O'Ded._ (_aside to him._) Why, you're disabled, I see.

_Sailor._ Disabled! What for? Why I've only lost _one_ arm yet. Bless
ye, I'm no beggar. I was going to see my Nancy, thirty miles further on
the road, and meeting some old messmates, we had a cann o' grog
together. One cann brought on another, and then we got drinking the
king's health, and the navy, and then _this_ admiral, and then _t'other_
admiral, till at last we had so many gallant heroes to drink, that we
were all drunk afore we came to the reckoning; so, your honour, as my
messmates had none of the rhino, I paid all; and then, you know, they
had a long journey upwards, and no biscuit aboard; so I lent one a
little, and another a little, till at last I found I had no coin left in
my locker for myself, except a cracked teaster that Nancy gave me; and I
couldn't spend that, you know, though I had been starving.

_O'Ded._ And so you begged!

_Sailor._ Begged! no. I just axed for a bit of bread and a mug o' water.
That's no more than one Christian ought to give another, and if you call
that begging, why I beg to differ in opinion.

_O'Ded._ According to the act you are a vagrant, and the justice may
commit ye; (_aside to the officer_) lookye, Mr. Officer--you're in the
wrong box here. Can't you see plain enough, by his having lost an arm,
that he earns a livelihood by the work of his hands; so lest he should
be riotous for being detained, let me advise you to be off. I'll send
him off after you with a flea in his ear--the other way.

_Officer._ Thank ye, sir, thank ye. I'm much obliged to you for your
advice, sir, and shall take it, and so my service to you. [_Exit._

_O'Ded._ Take this my honest lad; (_gives money_) say nothing about it,
and give my service to Nancy.

_Sailor._ Why now, heaven bless you honour forever; and if ever you're
in distress, and I'm within sight of signals, why hang out your blue
lights; and if I don't bear down to your assistance, may my gun be
primed with damp powder the first time we fire a broadside at the enemy.
[_Exit._

O'Dedimus _rings a bell._

_O'Ded._ Ponder! Now will this fellow be thinking and thinking, till he
quite forgets what he's doing. Ponder, I say! (_enter Pon