was the best o' the boiling--you'll meet her before it ends;
I'm in for a row with the mother--I'll leave you settle my friends:
For a man he must go with a woman, which women don't understand--
Or the sort that say they can see it they aren't the marrying brand.
But I wanted to speak o' your mother that's Lady Gloster still.
I'm going to up and see her, without it's hurting the will.
Here! Take your hand off the bell-pull. Five thousand's waiting for
you,
If you'll only listen a minute, and do as I bid you do.
They'll try to prove me a loony, and, if you bungle, they can;
And I've only you to trust to! (O God, why ain't he a man?)
There's some waste money on marbles, the same as McCullough tried--
Marbles and mausoleums--but I call that sinful pride.
There's some ship bodies for burial--we've carried 'em, soldered and
packed;
Down in their wills they wrote it, and nobody called _them_ cracked.
But me--I've too much money, and people might.... All my fault:
It come o' hoping for grandsons and buying that Wokin' vault.
I'm sick o' the 'ole dam' business; I'm going back where I came.
Dick, you're the son o' my body, and you'll take charge o' the same!
I'm going to lie by your mother, ten thousand mile away,
And they'll want to send me to Woking; and that's where you'll earn
your pay.
I've thought it out on the quiet, the same as it ought to be done--
Quiet, and decent, and proper--an' here's your orders, my son.
You know the Line? You don't, though. You write to the Board, and tell
Your father's death has upset you an' you're goin' to cruise for a
spell,
An' you'd like the Mary Gloster--I've held her ready for this--
They'll put her in working order an' you'll take her out as she is.
Yes, it was money idle when I patched her and put her aside
(Thank God, I can pay for my fancies!)--the boat where your mother
died,
By the Little Paternosters, as you come to the Union Bank,
We dropped her--I think I told you--and I pricked it off where she
sank.
[Tiny she looked on the grating--that oily, treacly sea--]
Hundred and eighteen East, remember, and South just three.
Easy bearings to carry--three South--three to the dot;
But I gave McAndrews a copy in case of dying--or not.
And so you'll write to McAndrews, he