Was she dead now? or, after all these years, had he broken the chain,
and run from home like a schoolboy? I could not discover which; but
here at least he was out on the adventure, and still one of the
bravest and most youthful men on board.
'Now, I suppose, I must put my old bones to work again,' said he;
'but I can do a turn yet.'
And the son to whom he was going, I asked, was he not able to support
him?
'Oh yes,' he replied. 'But I'm never happy without a job on hand.
And I'm stout; I can eat a'most anything. You see no craze about
me.'
This tale of a drunken wife was paralleled on board by another of a
drunken father. He was a capable man, with a good chance in life;
but he had drunk up two thriving businesses like a bottle of sherry,
and involved his sons along with him in ruin. Now they were on board
with us, fleeing his disastrous neighbourhood.
Total abstinence, like all ascetical conclusions, is unfriendly to
the most generous, cheerful, and human parts of man; but it could
have adduced many instances and arguments from among our ship's
company. I was, one day conversing with a kind and happy Scotsman,
running to fat and perspiration in the physical, but with a taste for
poetry and a genial sense of fun.
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