Semble--as the lawyers say--that this idea was born of great phonetic facts in the days when a seaman knew his duty better than the way to spell it; and when, if his outlook were sharpened by a friendly wring from the captain of the watch, he never dreamed of a police court.
But Robin Lyth had never cared to ask why he wore ear-rings.

His nature was not meditative.

Enough for him that all the other men of Flamborough did so; and enough for them that their fathers had done it.

Whether his own father had done so, was more than he could say, because he knew of no such parent; and of that other necessity, a mother, he was equally ignorant.

His first appearance at Flamborough, though it made little stir at the moment in a place of so many adventures, might still be considered unusual, and in some little degree remarkable.