"Going to see your father, eh! Well, now, that is rum.

I've just been to see my old mother at Ringwood, and going back to my ship--_Old Bull_." "The what ?" said Bob, who felt puzzled.
"_Old Bull_," said the man, picking up his cap and pointing to the letters on the riband; "_Tore--hus_ means 'old bull,' you know." "Oh, yes; I know now." "That's your sort.

How yer going to get aboard--boat waitin' for you ?" "Oh, no!" said Bob, looking at the man wistfully.
"Then you'll have to take one, and they're reg'lar sharks." "Are they, sir ?" "Ay! that they are, my lad; they'll want a shilling to row you aboard, or perhaps as you're a orficer, like, they'll want two shillings." Bob's heart sank.
"But thruppence is plenty, speshly as you ain't got no kit." Bob's spirits rose again, and the man began to whistle a very doleful tune, but left off in a minute or two.
"Like holidays ?" he said suddenly.
"Yes, very much." "I don't," said the sailor, "goes home to see my old mother, and she don't want me to come away again.

Says she shan't never see me no more if I go, but she allus does.

This makes ten times in ten years I've been, since I went to sea.