"'No,' I says, an' whatever 'twas, I didn' feel ort o'it. But I see'd 'em crawling so thick as sea-lice on the wall in a southerly gale, an' I tell 'ee, 'twas they things what took the heart out o' me more'n ort else, aye! more'n the food an' being away from home. Us cuden turn out, 'cause the landlord had our bags an' us hadn' got no money to get 'em back wi', nor nowhere else at all to go tu. "Next morning, us went straight down to the docks again. Cuden' eat no breakfast what they give'd us. Didn' know what to du. I only had tuppence left, which wuden' ha' taken me home again, not if I'd been willing to give up and go. Come to the last, us was forced to break our agreement. I signed on as able seaman--_able_ seaman 'cause I was a fishing chap an' had me Royal Naval Reserve ticket--aboard the _Brooklands_, bound for Bombay. Penny o' me tuppence, I spent writing home to tell mother. I cuden' stay aboard the ship (an' get summut to eat) 'cause I had my gear to get an' a ship to find for Dick--an' we still had hopes, like, o' getting a ship together. Howsbe-ever, us cuden't, nohow. The writer aboard the _Brooklands_ wuden't advance me no wages to get any gear. He told me the landlord to the lodging house wude, him what had our bags a'ready. "Then I thought o' the steward's note to the Board o' Trade officer, an' us inquired our way to the Board o' Trade, where ther was a gert crowd outside. 'Twas by that us know'd the place. A man told us as the officer what the note was directed tu, wude appear outside the door an' call. Sure 'nuff, he did--wi' gold buttons on his coat--an' called out: 'Six A.B.'s for the _Asia_'! "'Who be that?' I asked. "'That's he,' the man said. 'He'll come out again by'm-bye.' "Us worked our way to the front--getting cussed horrible for our pains--an' when Mr Gold-Buttons 'peared again, I give'd him the steward's note. He luked at it--an' us. He cude offer me something an' said as he'd du his best for me, but he cuden' hold out no promise for Dick because, see, he hadn' got no Naval Reserve ticket. [Sidenote: "_WER DICK GOES, I GOES_"] "'Wher Dick goes, I goes,' I says, like that. With which the Board o' Trade officer leaves us waiting there. "After an hour or so, he com'd out an' called, as if he hadn' ha' know'd us: 'Anthony Widger an' Richard Yeo! Richard Yeo an' Anthony Widger o' Seacombe!' "'Yer we be, sir,' shouts I, thinking we was fixed up. "'Be yu Anthony Widger an' Richard Yeo? Come in.' "Dick, he went in behind the officer, an' me behind Dick. 'Twer a darkish passage, but as the door closed I luked, an' there, hidden behind the door, sort o' flattened against the wall, who did I see but Dick's mother; her'd come all that way by herself. I called to Dick. "'What the bloody hell be doin' here?' said Dick swearing awful. "'Don't thee swear at thy mother, Dick,' I says. "'Dick!' her says, 'Dick, come home again. Your father's breakin' his heart.'