John Conroy Hutcheson

“ Faith, she’s saix feet hoigh, an’ broad in the b’ame in proporshi’n. They make a purty couple, bedad! an’ they do say she kapes him in order. Do ye rickolict what an argufyin’ chap Spokeshave was aboard?”
“I should think I did, indeed,” replied I. “I think he was the most cantankerous little beast I ever came across in my life, either afloat or ashore!”
“Faith, ye wouldn’t say that same now, Dick,” rejoined Garry with much earnestness. “The poor little beggar’s as make as a cat, for he daren’t call his sowl his own!” ”

“ I was as pleased to see him, as may readily be believed, as the genial Irishman was to see me, I was sure, even without his telling me so.
“Well,” said I, after we had pretty nigh wrung each other’s hands off in friendly greeting, “and how are you all getting on aboard the dear old barquey? I want to hear about everybody.”
“Begorrah, Dick, give me toime to recover me bre’th, me bhoy, an’ thin I’ll till ye ivverythin’,” and then he continued in a bashful sort of way, unlike his usual off-hand manner, “I’ve lift the say for good, an’ sit up for a docther ashore on me own hook, faith.” ”

“ Garry O’Neil joined his lot with that of my sister at the same time, the two brides being given away respectively by the skipper, who managed to run the Star of the North home in time for the wedding, and old Mr Stokes, the chief engineer of the old barquey, who had only to cross the road, instead of the Atlantic, to get to our house, as he lived near to us now—he also was present. Captain Applegarth, who was a very old friend of my mother’s and a kind one too, likewise, lived in a good substantial house surrounded by a lovely garden in our pretty, picturesque, old village. ”

“ The ould chap, though, is alive an’ hearty, an’ as asthamataky as ivver!”
“What’s become of Mr Fosset?”
“Och, be jabbers! he’s a big man now. He’s a skipper on his own hook, jist loike Cap’en Applegarth. He’s got the ould Fairi Quane, the sicond best boat but one to the line. ”