Chat on the Foc'sle

"Jolly Marine!" He smiled, amused that Thompson would have chosen such a name for his tavern. Appropriate though, to what his profession was now. "I'll remember that name, just don't you change it or have it be summat else." He warned, and tucked a few strands of stray hair behind his ear.

"How..how soon do you mean to leave t' marines?" He asked.

"Dunno. I like it in the Marines an' I don't mean to leave afore I have to. Can't afore the end of the war, anyway, an' who knows when that's goin' to be?" He frowned, thinking. "Could call it the Royal Marine, or His Majesty's Jolly. We gets called Jollies, y'see."

"N' lobsters, don't you?" He grinned and then with a stifled laugh added: "A Jolly good time.. now I be wondering." He was glad, though he did not say it, that the marine would not go for a long while. "No war won't be good on us... though peace should be cherished. Officers go on half pay then and many don't make it on ships. But you know that of course." He wouldn't have minded a certain few officers and midshipmen having to struggle to the days of peace. He knew his predicament couldn't be as bad, having a fine background to fall back to. He was sure enough of it.

"I don't know wot' I'd want... , really. "

"Aye, lobsters too. That's because of the red coat, I think. Get called leathernecks too, 'cause of the stocks." He grinned. "I know what you want. You want to end up as a captain on your own ship. She'd be a nice thing, like Terpsy, here. An' you'd be the best an' fairest Captain in the Navy."

" Bes' n' fairest? You ought ter be pullin' me leg. Have you forgotten wot' I did? Could never be fairest after that!" He grinned, and looked wishful of such a future. A captain of his own ship, like Terpsy but his. It was a fine dream, even if it meant that he would live a life of a captain, alone even amongst the officers.

"I liked yer stocks,. .ye know. Though they'um uncomfortable a bit. Leatherneck!" He grinned.

"Well, never said fairest middy, did I?" Thompson said, chuckling. "But I reckon you could be a real good captain, proper fair an' all." He grinned. "Aye, leatherneck. That's me, all right."

"Not if'um I snatch yer stock, you won't be! Then ye'd be a leatherless lobster!" He beamed and made a motion as if he meant to snatch something from the private. " N' your hat for a good measure, 'cos it's easier to run with it than a coat! What with it being so big!"

"Wouldn't fit you, me hat wouldn't," Thompson said, stretching lazily. "An' you wouldn't know what to do with it, neither."

"Didn't fit Fingers neither, but he ran like t' wind with it, you've seen. I bet he'd won that race too. Jus' as I did with Oxley." He grinned. "You know what that would mean, wouldn't you. " He scowled. "Sure I'd know wot' to do with a hat. Is fer a head, that one! Had my share in me life as a middie, you know! And You've shown me t' stock, so I'd be daft if I didn't know wot ter do with that neither!"

"Fingers is smaller'n you, like Sticks is smaller'n me. Only, my hat's a Marine's hat, so folks'd know it wasn't a sailor's hat, or a middy's hat neither. An' how would I be able to come on parade if you had my hat, then?"

"Easy, you'd just have to stand waay at the back, where nobody'd see you. Not soon enough 'tleast, and pray to all that is sacred that t' corporal's having a blurry day at it." He grinned , as if all that was perfectly plausible.

"N' I can have it then, stored neat n' nice where nobody can find it, that!"

"I don't think that'll work, somehow, really I don't," Thompson said, grinning.

"Well, we could try it. 'fcourse, if we are to try it, we shouldn't jus' stop at t' hat. Yer don't need that stock neither, no you don't! " He grinned innocently, already imagining how it could go and poor Johnson missing out on such an obvious abnormality as a marine without both. "But t' rest you should have. After all, you'd stand out like a sore thumb, should yer be standin' there jus' in yer shirt!"

"I'd stick out like a sore thumb without a stock on, an' all, you crazy Tar, you," Thompson said, grinning.

De Guarde laughed:" Now now, I could lend you me black neck tie! Jus' turn t' knot to be hidden. From far enough it might fool, and it's darn more comfortable than wot you have to wear. Think that would work? You, oh so sane, Mr. Lobster?" He made a mock bow, once he got to his feet and grinned.

"Might work, though I still reckon Corp'ral Johnson'd smell a rat an' give me what-for," Thompson said, grinning up at the lad before grabbing his wrist to pull him back down to the deck. "Wouldn't solve the problem of me hat, though, Mathew."

"..Oh,.. don't have nothin' ter look like a hat. Couldn't make it neither n' me middie's hat.. any good that could be is...well, stored away." He sat as he was pulled and stretches his legs out again.

"Maybe you could play a game o' switch'n'take. When Johnson looks yer way, you have somebody else's hat.. n' when he looks t' other way, that man has it." He looked quite innocent. "That's all fer me to keep yer own of course. Aren't I generous.. well , with all t' suggestions n' advises!"

"I swear we're goin' to find you slingin' your hammock with us, an' messin' with us an' all, one of these days. If I blink an' find a new drummer aboard without us havin' any warnin' of new Marines comin' aboard, I'll be sure to check your mess to see if it's you." Thompson grinned. "Though you'd get tired of all the drill an' bein' yelled at by Corp'ral Johnson when things ain't just so."

"Could jus' look at t' new drummer ter be sure." He chuckled at the thought. "Mmmm there must be a sor' of medicine for that too. Summat to put in your ears. He can yell all he wishes then, n' you jus' stand there all proper and take it.. not hearin' a bit o' it of course."

He knew it wouldn't work and that officers, corporals, sergeants, sometimes yelled things that weren't just some sort of upset with one's uniform, but that sometimes their yelling had the sort of content that would need a soldier to participate, to know what yelling was about, and not hearing that might pose a small problem.

"But don't you have tricks for that yeself?.. Surely ye'd have gottend tired of it, by this point. No?"

Thompson shrugged and leaned forward to rest his chin on his knee. "You sort of get used to it after a bit and you know when they want you to say summat. An' gen'rally you get to know what they want you to say as well. It's a.. well, a habit sort of thing, really, that you learn when you'm in trainin'."

"Like bein' a middie. You learn it all.. or a Tar. Is all about learning your place, learning your responses, and hoping you do it right. Eh?" He rested his head against the wooden support. " N' sometimes hoping that whatever you did wrong was right in somebody else's eyes." He yawned.

".. It's nice here. Not too stuffy 'tleast, n' not hot now that's dark. Do yer ever watch t' stars jus fer... t' sake of seeing them?" He asked in whisper, after a few moments have passed.

"Summat like that, I s'pose." He leaned back, to look up at the stars. Where they were, they could see the sky - or some of it - without the pale canvas of the foremast sails blocking them out. "Aye, it's real nice up here on deck. I think it's me favourite place to be. An' watchin' the stars is real nice. Folks tell me they've got names, though I only know the Dipper, there." He indicated the Plough, Ursa Major, which looked exactly like one of the dippers used at the scuttlebutt - or a big saucepan, with a slightly bent handle.

"They have, them stars n' how they're clustered together to form things. If you know them,.. you'll know your place too n' where you're going. Well, you'll know where you have to go accordin' to where you meant to... um..Well, you know." He smiled.

"They're so peaceful..always...N' when your mind's a storm, even then, looking at them you might find a calmness you've needed." He watched them, and wondered what Thompson thought of his little speech.

"Mmm, " Thompson said. "Like I say, the only one I know's the Dipper, an' I know you can use that to find North. But it's real nice lookin' at 'em, even if you don't know all the shapes, or what they'm called. Restful, like you say."

"Aye.." He nodded slowly. " What do you think of the moon?" He then added. "When she's all full n' fat and looks like a shilling." He smiled and looked peaceful at his best.