The Captain of the Inn

My father was always saying the inn would be ruined, for people would soon cease coming there to be tyrannised over and put down. But I really believe his presence did us good. People were frightened at the time, but on looking back they rather liked it. All the time he lived with us, the captain made no change whatever in his dress, but to buy some stockings from a hawker. One of the cocks of his hat having fallen down, he let it hang from that day forth - though it was a great annoyance when it blew. He never wrote or received a letter, and he never spoke with any but the neighbours, and with these only when drunk on rum