Read "Paying Off" by W.W. Jacobs online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
My biggest fault, said the night-watchman, gloomily, has been good / nature. I've spent the best part of my life trying to do my / fellow-creeturs a good turn. And what do I get for it? If all the / people I've helped was to come 'ere now there wouldn't be standing room / for them on this wharf. 'Arf of them would be pushed overboard-and a / good place for 'em, too.
I've been like it all my life. I was good-natured enough to go to sea / as a boy because a skipper took a fancy to me and wanted my 'elp, and / when I got older I was good-natured enough to get married. All my life / I've given 'elp and advice free, and only a day or two ago one of 'em / wot I 'ad given it to came round here with her 'usband and 'er two / brothers and 'er mother and two or three people from the same street, / to see her give me "wot for."