"He don't deserve 'em," he growled, "for coming; but he did show me
where you was."
"And he saved the rope," I said.
Ike nodded.
"You sit down till I come back, my lad," he said; and then he went off,
to return in a few minutes to face me at a table where we were regaled
with steaming coffee and grilled haddocks.
"This is the best part of the coming to market, my lad," he said, "only
it's a mistake."
"What is?" I asked.
"Haddocks, my lad. They're a trickier kind o' meat than bloaters. I
ordered this here for us 'cause it seemed more respectable like, as I'd
got company, than herrin'; but it's a mistake."
"But this is very nice," I said, beginning very hungrily upon the hot
roll and fish, but with a qualm in my mind as to how it was to be paid
for.
"Ye-es," said Ike, after saying "soup" very loudly as he took a long sip
of his coffee; "tidyish, my lad, tidyish, but you see one gets eddicated
to a herring, and knows exactly where every bone will be. These things
seems as if the bones is all nowhere and yet they're everywhere all the
time, and so sure as you feel safe and take a bite you find a sharp
pynte, just like a trap laid o' purpose to ketch yer."
"Well, there are a good many little bones, certainly," I said.
"Good many! Thick as slugs after a shower. There's one again, sharp as
a needle. Wish I'd a red herrin', that I do."
"I say, Ike," I said suddenly, as I was in the middle of my breakfast,
"I wish I could make haste and grow into a man."
"Do you, now?" he said with a derisive laugh. "Ah! I shouldn't wonder.
If you'd been a man I s'pose you'd have pitched all those rough uns out
o' window, eh?"
"I should have liked to be able to take care of myself," I said.
"Without old Ike, eh, my lad?"
"I don't mean that," I said; "only I should like to be a man."
"Instead o' being very glad you're a boy with everything fresh and
bright about you. Red cheeks and clean skin and all your teeth, and all
the time to come before you, instead of having to look back and think
you're like an old spade--most wore out."
"Oh, but you're so strong, Ike! I should like to be a man."
"Like to be a boy, my lad, and thank God you are one," said old Ike,
speaking as I had never heard him speak before. "It's natur', I s'pose.
All boys wishes they was men, and when they're men they look back on
that happiest time of their lives when they was boys and wishes it could
come over again."