United States or Australia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Nicky-Nan slewed himself about on the bollard, and encountered the genial gaze of Mr Latter, the landlord. Mr Latter, a retired Petty Officer of the Navy, stood six feet two inches in his socks, and carried a stomach which incommoded even that unusual stature.
"Better fit the good woman hadn' been so forward to despise my helpin'." He peered in cautiously. The room was uninhabited; stark bare of furniture, save for the quadrant key left to hang from the midmost beam; the "hellen "-slated floor clean as a new pin. Nicky-Nan heaved a sigh. "So they've gone," he thought to himself; "an' so we all pass out, one after another.
'Kind Action? says he. 'I don't want you to do him no kinder action than to catch him out for a German spy. I name no names, says he, 'but from information received, he's in the Germans' pay, an' Mrs Polsue is ready to swear to it." Nicky-Nan gripped his walking-staff and stood erect, as if to spring on Mr Pamphlett.
They form the staple of conversation on the Quay-side. Fish ranks next: after fish, religion: after religion, clack about boats and persons; and so we come down to politics, peace and war, the manner of getting to foreign ports and the kind of people one finds in them. Nicky-Nan could read very few signs of the weather from his dark little parlour.
"Well, between you an' me," announced young 'Bert, who during the last week had seemed to put on stature with confidence, "there's a company of Royal Engineer Territorials ordered over from Troy to dig theirselves in an' camp here." Hysterics. Monotonous burthen. Nicky-Nan arose with the dawn after a night of little sleep.
So the first batch of men from Polpier were rattled through the street and away up the hill. The crowd lingered awhile and dispersed, gossiping, to Church or Chapel. Nicky-Nan, seated on the parapet of the bridge, unfolded the blue paper which the young officer had thrust into his hand. He was alone and could study it at leisure. It was headed by the Royal Arms, and it ran as follows:
"Thank 'ee, friend. There's nothin' I relish more than a white-fleshed 'taty, well-grown an' well-boiled. Not a trace o' disease anywhere," observed the corporal, running his eye over the rows and bringing it to rest on the newly-turned soil at his feet. "Eh? Hullo!" He stooped and picked up a sovereign. "That's mine!" Nicky-Nan claimed it hastily. "I must ha' dropped it "
A glass o' champagne will keep kickin' inside o' ye for an hour maybe. With brandy 'tis soon over and you want another go. I've noticed that often." "You won't have a chance to notice it today." Nicky-Nan drained his glass at a gulp, and searched again in his pockets. . . .
"To a man in the Force," said Rat-it-all pensively, "an expression like that, mixed up with photographs in the 'Daily Mirror, strikes HOME. A man in the Force, as I'll put it, is in some ways unlike other men." He paused to let this sink in. "Take your time," said Nicky-Nan. "But I'm not contradictin' 'ee." "If they're a species, he's a specie a man set apart, like a parson.
But never you fret: I'm upsides with Pamphlett. This is my house, ma'am: an' here I bide till it pleases me to quit." "O-oh!" sighed Mrs Penhaligon dejectedly, "then it puts me in a very awkward position, if you don't mind my sayin' so." "How is it awkward, ma'am?" asked Nicky-Nan, rubbing his unshaven chin with the point of the trowel. "Well, Mr Nanjivell, I dare say you meant it well enough.
Word Of The Day