I had one out there myself when I was
just about your age, nigh forty years ago. I went out for a sail
with my father in his fishing boat, and I didn't come back for
three years. That was the only long voyage I ever went. I've been
sticking to fishing ever since."
"How was it you were away three years?" Handcock asked, "and what
was the adventure? Tell us about it."
"Well, it's rather a long yarn," the boatman said.
"Well, your best plan, Jack," Ruthven said, putting his hand in
his pocket and bringing out sixpence, "will be for you to go across
the road and wet your whistle before you begin."
"Thank ye, young gentleman. I will take three o' grog and an ounce
of 'bacca."
He went across to the public house, and soon returned with a long
clay in his hand. Then he sat down on the shingle with his back
against a boat, and the boys threw themselves down close to him.
"Now," he began, when he had filled his pipe with great deliberation
and got it fairly alight, "this here yarn as I'm going to tell you
ain't no gammon. Most of the tales which gets told on the beach to
visitors as comes down here and wants to hear of sea adventures is
just lies from beginning to end.
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