`` darby , sir , but janus they call me , '' the seaman said , `` on account of a surgeon we shipped in the sophie , a learned bloke , saying i saw both ways like some old roman cut-up by that name ; and there i would be still , but my girl in the city losing her mum , and taking sick , and her with three , four mouths to feed , '' he added , his excuses with an air defensive and vague : likely it had been not one girl but several , and the general lack of them aboard , which had induced him to quietly abandon the sea .