‘I’ve been whaling mysel’,’ said he; ’and I’ve heerd tell as whalers wear knives, and I’d ha’ gi’en t’ gang a taste o’ my whittle, if I’d been cotched up just as I’d set my foot a-shore.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Philip; ‘we’re at war wi’ the French, and we shouldn’t like to be beaten; and yet if our numbers are not equal to theirs, we stand a strong chance of it.’

‘Not a bit on’t—­so be d—­d!’ said Daniel Robson, bringing down his fist with such violence on the round deal table, that the glasses and earthenware shook again.  ’Yo’d not strike a child or a woman, for sure! yet it ‘ud be like it, if we did na’ give the Frenchies some ’vantages—­if we took ’em wi’ equal numbers.  It’s not fair play, and that’s one place where t’ shoe pinches.  It’s not fair play two ways.  It’s not fair play to cotch up men as has no call for fightin’ at another man’s biddin’, though they’ve no objection to fight a bit on their own account and who are just landed, all keen after bread i’stead o’ biscuit, and flesh-meat i’stead o’ junk, and beds i’stead o’ hammocks. (I make naught o’ t’ sentiment side, for I were niver gi’en up to such carnal-mindedness and poesies.) It’s noane fair to cotch ’em up and put ’em in a stifling hole, all lined with metal for fear they should whittle their way out, and send ’em off to sea for years an’ years to come.  And again it’s no fair play to t’ French.  Four o’ them is rightly matched wi’ one o’ us; and if we go an’ fight ’em four to four it’s like as if yo’ fell to beatin’ Sylvie there, or little Billy Croxton, as isn’t breeched.  And that’s my mind.  Missus, where’s t’ pipe?’

Philip did not smoke, so took his turn at talking, a chance he seldom had with Daniel, unless the latter had his pipe between his lips.  So after Daniel had filled it, and used Sylvia’s little finger as a stopper to ram down the tobacco—­a habit of his to which she was so accustomed that she laid her hand on the table by him, as naturally as she would have fetched him his spittoon when he began to smoke—­Philip arranged his arguments, and began—­

‘I’m for fair play wi’ the French as much as any man, as long as we can be sure o’ beating them; but, I say, make sure o’ that, and then give them ivery advantage.  Now I reckon Government is not sure as yet, for i’ the papers it said as half th’ ships i’ th’ Channel hadn’t got their proper complement o’ men; and all as I say is, let Government judge a bit for us; and if they say they’re hampered for want o’ men, why we must make it up somehow.  John and Jeremiah Foster pay in taxes, and Militiaman pays in person; and if sailors cannot pay in taxes, and will not pay in person, why they must be made to pay; and that’s what th’ press-gang is for, I reckon.  For my part, when I read o’ the way those French chaps are going on, I’m thankful to be governed by King George and a British Constitution.’

Daniel took his pipe out of his mouth at this.