PEW. Hey? Old girl fly? Then I reckon I must have a mate, if it was the parish bull. SCENE II _To these_, KIT, _a little drunk_ KIT (_looking in over half-door_). Mrs. Drake! Mother! Where are you? Come and welcome the prodigal! MRS. DRAKE (_coming forward to meet him as he enters_; PEW _remains concealed by the settle_, _smoking_, _drinking_, _and listening_). Lord bless us and save us, if it ain’t my boy! Give us a kiss. KIT. That I will, and twenty if you like, old girl. (_Kisses her_.) MRS. DRAKE. O Kit, Kit, you’ve been at those other houses, where the stuff they give you, my dear, it is poison for a dog. [KIT. Round with friends, mother: only round with friends. MRS. DRAKE. Well, anyway, you’ll take a glass just to settle it, from me. (_She brings the bottle_, _and fills for him_.) There, that’s pure; that’ll do you no harm.] But O, Kit, Kit, I thought you were done with all this Jack-a-shoring. KIT. What cheer, mother? I’m only a sheet in the wind; and who’s the worse for it but me? MRS. DRAKE. Ah, and that dear young lady; and her waiting and keeping single these two years for the love of you! KIT. She, mother? she’s heart of oak, she’s true as steel, and good as gold; and she has my ring on her finger, too. But where’s the use? The Admiral won’t look at me. MRS. DRAKE. Why not? You’re as good a man as him any day. KIT. Am I? He says I’m a devil, and swears that none of his flesh and blood—that’s what he said, mother!—should lie at my mercy. That’s what cuts me. If it wasn’t for the good stuff I’ve been taking aboard, and the jolly companions I’ve been seeing it out with, I’d just go and make a hole in the water, and be done with it, I would, by George! MRS. DRAKE. That’s like you men. Ah, we know you, we that keeps a public-house—we know you, good and bad: you go off on a frolic and forget; and you never think of the women that sit crying at home. KIT. Crying? Arethusa cry? Why, dame, she’s the bravest-hearted girl in all broad England! Here, fill the glass! I’ll win her yet. I drink to her; here’s to her bright eyes, and here’s to the blessed feet she walks upon! PEW (_looking round the corner of the settle_). Spoke like a gallant seaman, every inch. Shipmate, I’m a man as has suffered, and I’d like to shake your fist, and drink a can of flip with you. KIT (_coming down_). Hullo, my hearty! who the devil are you? Who’s this, mother? MRS. DRAKE. Nay, I know nothing about him. (_She goes out_, _R._) PEW. Cap’n, I’m a brother seaman, and my name is Pew, old David Pew, as you may have heard of in your time, he having sailed along of ’Awke and glorious Benbow, and a right-’and man to both. KIT. Benbow? Steady, mate! D’ye mean to say you went to sea before you were born?