me and that navy ain t speakin at sailin i tell you i m through on the advice of a doc i got me a shock i had to have somethin to do these nerves i got are from soakin too long when the ship got hit by a plane and right here about four years back i met grasshopper macclain the sun was a burnin and the desert red hot when his mother drove in with a flat she went inside to cool off with a beer and i saw her kid in the back he lay on the seat in the swelterin heat with hair the color of flame a red headed mite but smilin and bright was little ol grasshopper macclain i fixed her tyre and was totin him round when she asked me how much she owed i just laughed and said boy i settle for him and to my surprice she drove off down the road i figured she d sober and come hurryin back but for three long years she never came and all that time i was mother and dad to little ol grasshopper macclain i d tell him of ships i d sailed on the seas when i put him in bed at night and that freckle faced kid was as sharp as a tack and quick as a mate for a fight i thought i d wait till he growed a bit and let him pick out his own name one day he came in with a bug in his hand and he said me grasshopper macclain oh he d mimic my walk and he d mimic my talk like my shadow he just tagged me around even had to be checked every time i was checked by the navy doc over the town the doc d laugh and thump his little ole chest and say feller you re right as rain then he d turn to me and tell me that i d be a new man thanks to grasshopper macclain i guess you wonder why i m tellin you this well that s why i m here doin time for a bang and a sheriff and a red headed dame that came to take what was mine oh but you should ve seen the way he fought you could tell that kid was navy trained but this lonely cell wouldn t be so much like hell if i only had grasshopper macclain