Jim struck a match and had a fire going in no time; there was plenty of dry wood, of course.

Then father rolls a keg out of a hole in the wall; first-rate dark brandy it was, and we felt a sight better for a good stiff nip all round.

When a man's cold and tired, and hungry, and down on his luck as well, a good caulker of grog don't do him no harm to speak of.

It strings him up and puts him straight.

If he's anything of a man he can stand it, and feel all the better for it; but it's a precious sight too easy a lesson to learn, and there's them that can't stop, once they begin, till they've smothered what brains God Almighty put inside their skulls, just as if they was to bore a hole and put gunpowder in.