A child remembers meeting a rough, talkative man sitting under a tree outside the village. The man asks where he is, says he has never been there before, and tells a string of colorful stories. His flat nose came from a ship’s first mate hitting him with a marling-spike, but he is not sorry that man is dead. He wears one gold earring and claims a crocodile bit off the other ear. The young speaker is charmed rather than frightened. The man teaches him to chew, and the boy decides he was “a real nice man” who liked him too. The mood is warm, amused, and a little tall-tale-ish: a rough adult is seen through a child’s uncritical, friendly eyes. There is a hint of danger in the man’s past, but the speaker turns it into something companionable and funny.
Seumas Beg — Summary
A MAN was sitting underneath a tree Outside the village, and he asked me what Name was upon this place, and said that he Was never here before. He told a lot
Of stories to me too. His nose was flat. I asked him how it happened, and he said The first mate of the Mary Ann done that With a marling-spike one day, but he was dead,
And jolly good job too ; and he'd have gone A long way to have killed him, and he had A gold ring in one ear ; the other one " Was bit off by a crocodile, bedad."
That's what he said. He taught me how to chew. He was a real nice man. He liked me too.