Captains All and Others

Every sailorman grumbles about the sea, said the night-watchman, thoughtfully. It''s human nature to grumble, and I s''pose they keep on grumbling and sticking to it because there ain''t much else they can do. There''s not many shore-going berths that a sailorman is fit for, and those that they are—such as a night-watchman''s, for instance—wants such a good character that there''s few as are to equal it.Sometimes they get things to do ashore. I knew one man that took up butchering, and ''e did very well at it till the police took him up. Another man I knew gave up the sea to marry a washerwoman, and they hadn''t been married six months afore she died, and back he ''ad to go to sea agin, pore chap.