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Then, addressing poor "Downy" he cried out curtly, "Turn out your pockets!" The ex-gravedigger sadly produced four sovereigns. "Is that all the money you've got?" "Yes, sir," replied "Downy," in a still more sepulchral tone. "Every ha'penny." "Then, pay this woman here, for you must have a rig-out for the voyage," said the lieutenant.
"Yes, sir; but I'd better tell you the whole story, sir," said the ex-gravedigger. "I acknowledge owing Mister Isaacs some money, though he's piled it on pretty thick, I must say; for I were four weeks out of work and had to board at his place." "Yes, s'help me, and ate and drank of the best, too. Oh, Father Moses, how he did eat!" interrupted his creditor.
A quarter-of-an-hour later, both watches were mustered, all decently dressed, like "Sally in our Alley," in their Sunday best, according to their respective stations; the first and second divisions on the upper deck and forecastle, under the first lieutenant and Mr Jellaby; the third and fourth divisions on the main deck, with Mr Gilham and Mr Bitpin at the head of the men; and the fifth and sixth on the lower deck, in charge of "Gunnery Jack," in lieu of one of the regular lieutenants, and the second mate, the fat Plumper, bursting out of his buttons as usual, who was at the head of the after-guard, among whom I recognised the ex-gravedigger, "Downy."
"I would he had not sought to tax us," said Cecco del Vecchio, who was the very personification of the vulgar feeling: "and that he had beheaded the Barons!" "Ay!" cried the ex-gravedigger; "but that blessed porphyry vase!" "And why should we get our throats cut," said Luigi, the butcher, "like my two brothers? Heaven rest them!"
Talking of the men, Master "Downy," the ex-gravedigger, although he had been scraped into something of a sailor in appearance in the time he had been afloat, now nearly five years, in which period, by the way, he had accumulated enough prize-money to more than discharge the debts he had left behind on quitting his country, could never be taught to be smart in his movements, always going about the deck as if he were engaged at a funeral.
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