He fairly hated these appearances of
Billy, and they spoiled his term of office, I do believe. But all the
same he turned out a very passable Mayor. The townsfolk respected him
so highly, I've heard my mother say, that they made him Ex-Mayor the
year following.
Now you'll be wanting to know what made these two men hate each other,
for friends they had been, as two men ought to be who had been taken
prisoners together and spent ten years in captivity to the French, and
come home aboard the same ship like brothers. The bigger the love the
bigger the hate, and no difficulty to guess there was a woman in the
case. So there was; but the way she came between them was curious, for
all that.
First of all, you must know, that up to the year 'three Abe Cummins and
Bill Bosistow hadn't known what it is to quarrel or miss meeting each
other every day. They went to school together, and then to the fishing,
and afterwards they sailed together with the free-traders over to
Mount's Bay, and good seamen the both, though not a bit alike in looks
and ways. Abe, the elder by a year, was a bit slow and heavy on his
pins; given to reading, too, though he seemed to take it up for peace
and quietness more than for any show he made of his learning. Bill was
smarter altogether and better looking; a bit boastful, after the manner
of young chaps. He could read too, but never did much at it, though
I've heard that on Saturday nights he was fond of ranting verses--stuff
about drink and such like--out of a book of Robert Burns's poetry he'd
borrowed off Abe.
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