Explore "The Sign of "the Old Ship"" by G.K. Chesterton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
UPON few of the children of men has the surname of Pump fallen, and of / these few have been maddened into naming a child Humphrey in addition to / it. To such extremity, however, had the parents of the innkeeper at "The / Old Ship" proceeded, that their son might come at last to be called / "Hump" by his dearest friends, and "Pumph" by an aged Turk with a green / umbrella. All this, or all he knew of it, he endured with a sour smile; / for he was of a stoical temper.
Mr. Humphrey Pump stood outside his inn, which stood almost on the / seashore, screened only by one line of apple trees, dwarfed, twisted and / salted by the sea air; but in front of it was a highly banked bowling / green, and behind it the land sank abruptly; so that one very steep / sweeping road vanished into the depth and mystery of taller trees. Mr. / Pump was standing immediately under his trim sign, which stood erect in / the turf; a wooden pole painted white and suspending a square white / board, also painted white but further decorated with a highly grotesque / blue ship, such as a child might draw, but into which Mr. Pump's / patriotism had insinuated a disproportionately large red St. George's / cross.