As, however, the most of the company were possessed of that
valuable philosophy which enables a man to bear up with fortitude
against the misfortunes of his neighbors, they soon managed to
console themselves for the tragic end of the veteran. The landlord
was particularly happy that the poor dear man had paid his
reckoning before he went, and made a kind of farewell speech on the
occasion.
"He came," said he, "in a storm, and he went in a storm; he came in
the night, and he went in the night; he came nobody knows whence,
and he has gone nobody knows where. For aught I know he has gone
to sea once more on his chest, and may land to bother some people
on the other side of the world; though it's a thousand pities,"
added he, "if he has gone to Davy Jones's[1] locker, that he had
not left his own locker[2] behind him."
[1] Davy Jones is the spirit of the sea, or the sea devil, and Davy
Jones's locker is the bottom of the ocean; hence, "gone to Davy
Jones's locker" signifies "dead and buried in the sea."
[2] Chest.
"His locker! St. Nicholas preserve us!" cried Peechy Prauw.
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