"I felt like a father for the lad myself," said Cæsar, "he was always my white-headed boy, and I stuck to him with life. He desarved it, too. Maybe his birth was a bit mischancy, but what's the ould saying, 'Don't tell me what I was, tell me what I am. And Pete was that civil with the tongue a civiller young man never was." Black Tom tsht and spat.
"How's the girl to have her black ready?" Oh, I'll be faithful, I'll give it them straight, it's a time for spaking like a dying man to dying men; I'll take a tex' that'll be a lesson and a warning, 'Ho, every one that thirsteth " Black Tom tsht and spat again. "I wouldn't, Cæsar; they'll think you're going to trate them," he muttered.