plays [62]
PEW. Don't you insinuate against my friend. HE ain't a child, I
hope? HE knows his business? Don't you get trying to go a
lowering of my friend in his own esteem.
MRS. DRAKE. Well, I'll bring it, Kit; but it's against the
grain. (EXIT.)
KIT. I say, old boy, come to think of it, why should we? It's
been glasses round with me all day. I've got my cargo.
PEW. You? and you just argy'd the 'ed off of Admiral Guinea? O
stash that! I stand treat, if it comes to that!
KIT. What! Do I meet with a blind seaman and not stand him?
That's not the man I am!
MRS. DRAKE (RE-ENTERING WITH BOTTLE AND GLASSES). There!
PEW. Easy does it, ma'am.
KIT. Mrs. Drake, you had better trot.
MRS. DRAKE. Yes, I'll trot; and I trot with a sick heart, Kit
French, to leave you drinking your wits away with that low blind
man. For a low man you are - a low blind man - and your clothes
they would disgrace a scarecrow. I'll go to my bed, Kit; and O,
dear boy, go soon to yours - the old room, you know; it's ready
for you - and go soon and sleep it off; for you know, dear, they,
one and all, regret it in the morning; thirty years I've kept
this house, and one and all they did regret it, dear.
PEW. Come now, you walk!
MRS. DRAKE. O, it's not for your bidding. You a seaman? The
ship for you to sail in is the hangman's cart. - Good-night, Kit
dear, and better company!
SCENE VI
PEW, KIT. They sit at the other table, L.
PEW. Commander, here's HER 'ealth!
KIT. Ay, that's the line: HER health! But that old woman there
is a good old woman, Pew.
PEW. So she is, Commander. But there's no woman understands a
seaman; now you and me, being both bred to it, we splice by
natur'. As for A. G., if argyment can win her, why, she's yours.
If I'd a-had your 'ed for argyment, damme, I'd a-been a Admiral,
I would! And if argyment won't win her, well, see here, you put
your trust in David Pew.
KIT. David Pew, I don't know who you are, David Pew; I never
heard of you; I don't seem able to clearly see you. Mrs. Drake,
she's a smart old woman, Pew, and she says you've the devil in
your face.
PEW. Ah, and why, says you? Because I up and put her in her
place, when she forgot herself to you, Commander.
KIT. Well, Pew, that's so; you stood by me like a man. Shake
hands, Pew; and we'll make a night of it, or we'll know why, old
boy!
PEW. That's my way. That's Pew's way, that is. That's Pew's
way all over. Commander, excuse the liberty; but when I was your
age, making allowance for a lowlier station and less 'ed for
argyment, I was as like you as two peas. I know it by the v'ice
(SINGS) -
'We hadn't been three days at sea before we saw a sail,
So we clapped on every stitch would stand, although it blew a
gale,
And we walked along full fourteen knots, for the barkie she did
know
As well as ever a soul on board, 'twas time for us to go.'
Chorus, Cap'n!
PEW AND KIT (IN CHORUS) -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
As well as ever a soul on board,
'Twas time for us to go.'
PEW (SINGS) -
'We carried away the royal yard, and the stunsail boom was gone;
Says the skipper, "They may go or stand, I'm damned if I don't
crack on;
So the weather braces we'll round in, and the trysail set also,
And we'll keep the brig three p'ints away, for it's time for us
to go.
Give it mouth, Commander!
PEW AND KIT (IN CHORUS) -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
And we'll keep the brig three p'ints away,
For it's time for us to go.'
PEW. I ain't sung like that since I sang to Admiral 'Awke, the
night before I lost my eyes, I ain't. 'Sink me!' says he, says
Admiral 'Awke, my old commander (TOUCHING HIS HAT), 'sink me!' he
says, 'if that ain't 'art-of-oak,' he says: ''art-of-oak,' says
he, 'and a pipe like a bloody blackbird!' Commander, here's my
respecks, and the devil fly away with Admiral Guinea!
KIT. I say, Pew, how's this? How do you know about Admiral
Guinea? I say, Pew, I begin to