They are too strong, an' when I smash a man on the jaw the hands get smashed, too." He was not happy at what he had said.

He was filled with disgust at himself.

He had loosed the guard upon his tongue and talked about things that were not nice.
"It was brave of you to help Arthur the way you did--and you a stranger," she said tactfully, aware of his discomfiture though not of the reason for it.
He, in turn, realized what she had done, and in the consequent warm surge of gratefulness that overwhelmed him forgot his loose-worded tongue.
"It wasn't nothin' at all," he said.

"Any guy 'ud do it for another.
That bunch of hoodlums was lookin' for trouble, an' Arthur wasn't botherin' 'em none.

They butted in on 'm, an' then I butted in on them an' poked a few.