"I used to think a lot about him on the voyage back to Buenos Ayres. I
don't know what he was in, in the war, though the Second, whose brother
was a driver in the Artillery, said he was in the Mounted Infantry
uniform. Everybody was Mounted Infantry in those days. To me it seemed
strange that Frank should go out to the war, but I've come to the
conclusion he really felt the call. There was the excitement too. The
old bad Irish blood comes out in the love of a row.
"In Buenos Ayres I had a letter from Aunt Rebecca. Rosa had a baby, but
it was dead as soon as born. The old woman said I'd better come home. I
remember walking up and down the bridge-deck that night, thinking things
out under the stars. I knew Rosa would like to go to England. They hear
so much about _Inghilterra_ in Italy. For them it is a land where lords
and ladies walk about the streets and give pennies to poor people all
day long. Then again, I was not only in need of a holiday, but I was
able to afford one if I was careful and kept down expenses. To take a
holiday in England, with Rosa! To see it as though it was all fresh! The
fancy took strong hold of me. I saw myself going through St. Paul's, the
Tower, Monument and Westminster Abbey, as an alien. I saw the hungry
landlady in the Bloomsbury boarding-house trying to rook me.
'Bloomsburys' have a very bad name in Italy among educated people. I
read an article in the _Stampa_--very humorous it was. Humph!
"I talked it over with the Skipper next day. It is a strange thing to me
how men value one sentiment and underrate another. If I'd gone to the
Old Man and said, 'I want to go home, Captain, and see my wife,' he
would have asked me if I was crazy. But as soon as I said--showing him
the black-edged letter--that the kid was dead, he pulled a long face
and said he'd see the agents at once. I wrote to my old uncle in London
explaining matters. The Second got his step and they got a new Fourth
off a meat-boat of the company's that was loading at the time. When I
was paid off I took my dunnage and bought me a second-class ticket for
Genoa on a Rubattino boat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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