HOCKEN AND HUNKEN***
E-text prepared by Lionel Sear
HOCKEN AND HUNKEN
A Tale of Troy
by
Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch ('Q')
CONTENTS.
BOOK I
CHAPTER
I. CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE.
II. THE BARBER'S CHAIR.
III. TABB'S CHILD.
IV. VOICES IN THE TWILIGHT.
V. A TESTIMONIAL.
VI. RILLA FARM.
VII. 'BIAS ARRIVES.
VIII. 'BIAS APPROVES.
BOOK II
IX. FIRST SUSPICIONS.
X. REGATTA NIGHT.
XI. MRS BOSENNA PLAYS A PARLOUR GAME.
XII. _AMANTIUM IRAE_.
XIII. FAIR CHALLENGE.
XIV. THE LETTERS.
XV. PALMERSTON'S GENIUS.
XVI. IS IN TWO PARTS.
XVII. APPARENTLY DIVIDES INTO THREE.
BOOK III
XVIII. THE PLOUGHING.
XIX. ROSES AND THREE-PER-CENTS.
XX. A NEWSPAPER PARAGRAPH.
XXI. THE AUCTION.
XXII. THE LAST CHALLENGE.
XXIII. PASSAGE REGATTA.
XXIV. FANCY BRINGS NEWS.
XXV. CAI RENOUNCES.
XXVI. 'BIAS RENOUNCES.
XXVII. MRS BOSENNA GIVES THE ROSE.
XXVIII. JUBILEE.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
CAPTAIN CAI HAULS ASHORE.
"Well, _that's_ over!"
Captain Caius Hocken, from the stern-sheets of the boat bearing him shoreward, slewed himself half-about for a look back at his vessel, the _Hannah Hoo_ barquentine. This was a ticklish operation, because he wore a tall silk hat and had allowed his hair to grow during the passage home--St. Michael's to Liverpool with a cargo of oranges, and from Liverpool around to Troy in charge of a tug.
"I'm wonderin' what 'twill feel like when it comes to my turn," mused his mate Mr Tregaskis, likewise pensively contemplating the _Hannah Hoo_. "Not to be sure, sir, as I'd compare the two cases; me bein' a married man, and you--as they say--with the ship for wife all these years, and children too."
"I never liked the life, notwithstandin'," confessed the Captain. "And I'll be fifty come Michaelmas. Isn' that enough?"
"Nobody likes it, sir; not at our age. But all the same I reckon there be compensations." Mr Tregaskis, shading his eyes (for the day was sunny), let his gaze travel up the spars and rigging of the Barquentine--up to the truck of her maintopmast, where a gull had perched itself and stood with tail pointing like a vane. "If the truth were known, maybe your landsman on an average don't do as he chooses any more than we mariners."
