They was homeward bound on a steamer from Melbourne when they made their minds up; and Isaac Lunn, the oldest fireman aboard—a very steady old teetotaler—gave them a lot of good advice about it. They all wanted to rejoin the ship when she sailed agin, and ’e offered to take a room ashore with them and mind their money, giving ’em what ’e called a moderate amount each day. They would ha’ laughed at any other man, but they knew that old Isaac was as honest as could be and that their money would be safe with ’im, and at last, after a lot of palaver, they wrote out a paper saying as they were willing for ’im to ’ave their money and give it to ’em bit by bit, till they went to sea agin. Anybody but Ginger Dick and Peter Russet or a fool would ha’ known better than to do such a thing, but old Isaac ’ad got such a oily tongue and seemed so fair-minded about wot ’e called moderate drinking that they never thought wot they was letting themselves in for, and when they took their pay—close on sixteen pounds each—they put the odd change in their pockets and ’anded the rest over to him. The first day they was as pleased as Punch. Old Isaac got a nice, respectable bedroom for them all, and arter they’d ’ad a few drinks they humoured ’im by ’aving a nice ’ot cup o’ tea, and then goin’ off with ’im to see a magic-lantern performance. It was called “The Drunkard’s Downfall,” and it begun with a young man going into a nice-looking pub and being served by a nice-looking barmaid with a glass of ale. Then it got on to ’arf pints and pints in the next picture, and arter Ginger ’ad seen the lost young man put away six pints in about ’arf a minute, ’e got such a raging thirst on ’im that ’e couldn’t sit still, and ’e whispered to Peter Russet to go out with ’im. “You’ll lose the best of it if you go now,” ses old Isaac, in a whisper; “in the next picture there’s little frogs and devils sitting on the edge of the pot as ’e goes to drink.” “Ginger Dick got up and nodded to Peter.” “Arter that ’e kills ’is mother with a razor,” ses old Isaac, pleading with ’im and ’olding on to ’is coat. Ginger Dick sat down agin, and when the murder was over ’e said it made ’im feel faint, and ’im and Peter Russet went out for a breath of fresh air. They ’ad three at the first place, and then they moved on to another and forgot all about Isaac and the dissolving views until ten o’clock, when Ginger, who ’ad been very liberal to some friends ’e’d made in a pub, found ’e’d spent ’is last penny. “This comes o’ listening to a parcel o’ teetotalers,” ’e ses, very cross, when ’e found that Peter ’ad spent all ’is money too. “Here we are just beginning the evening and not a farthing in our pockets.”