Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. SHOWS HOW THE CAPTAIN CAME TO AN ANCHOR, AND CONCEIVED A DEEP DESIGN. When Captain Wopper parted from his young friend, he proceeded along the Strand in an unusually grave mood, shaking his head to such a degree, as he reflected on the precocious wickedness of the rising generation, that a very ragged and pert specimen of that generation, observing his condition, gravely informed him that there was an hospital for incurables in London, which took in patients with palsy and St. Wituses' dance werry cheap. This recalled him from the depths of sorrowful meditation, and induced him to hail a cab, in which he drove to the docks, claimed his chest—a solid, seamanlike structure, reminding one of the wooden walls of Old England—and returned with it to the head of the lane leading to Grubb's Court. Dismissing the cab, he looked round for a porter, but as no porter appeared, the Captain, having been accustomed through life to help himself, and being, as wehave said, remarkably strong, shouldered the nautical chest, and bore it to the top of Mrs. Eoby's staircase. Here he encountered, and almost tumbled over, Gillie White, who saluted him with—" Hallo ! ship aho-o-oy! starboard hard ! breakers ahead! Why, Capp'n, yon 've all but run into me !" " Why don't you show a light then," retorted the Captain, " or blow your steam-whistle, in such a dark hole? What's that you 've got in your arms ?" " The baby," replied Gillie. " What baby ?" demanded the Captain. " Our baby, of course," returned the imp, in a tone that implied the non-existence of any other baby worth mentioning. " I brought it up to show it to the sick 'ooman next door but one to Mrs. Eob/s cabin. She's very sick, she is, an' took a great longing to see our baby, cos she thinks it's like what...