He was right glad when he got out : but he would not desert his friend who had saved him ; and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold of it , and pulled with all his might . But the lobster would not let go . `` Come along , '' said Tom ; `` do n't you see she is dead ? '' And so she was , quite drowned and dead . And that was the end of the wicked otter . But the lobster would not let go . `` Come along , you stupid old stick-in-the-mud , '' cried Tom , `` or the fisherman will catch you ! '' And that was true , for Tom felt some one above beginning to haul up the pot . But the lobster would not let go . Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the boat-side , and thought it was all up with him . But when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman , he gave such a furious and tremendous snap , that he snapped out of his hand , and out of the pot , and safe into the sea . But he left his knobbed claw behind him ; for it never came into his stupid head to let go after all , so he just shook his claw off as the easier method . It was something of a bull , that ; but you must know the lobster was an Irish lobster , and was hatched off Island Magee at the mouth of Belfast Lough . Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of letting go . He said very determinedly that it was a point of honour among lobsters . And so it is , as the Mayor of Plymouth found out once to his cost -- eight or nine hundred years ago , of course ; for if it had happened lately it would be personal to mention it . For one day he was so tired with sitting on a hard chair , in a grand furred gown , with a gold chain round his neck , hearing one policeman after another come in and sing , `` What shall we do with the drunken sailor , so early in the morning ? '' and answering them each exactly alike : `` Put him in the round house till he gets sober , so early in the morning '' - That , when it was over , he jumped up , and played leap-frog with the town-clerk till he burst his buttons , and then had his luncheon , and burst some more buttons , and then said : `` It is a low spring - tide ; I shall go out this afternoon and cut my capers . '' Now he did not mean to cut such capers as you eat with boiled mutton . It was the commandant of artillery at Valetta who used to amuse himself with cutting them , and who stuck upon one of the bastions a notice , `` No one allowed to cut capers here but me , '' which greatly edified the midshipmen in port , and the Maltese on the Nix Mangiare stairs .
But all that the mayor meant was that he would go and have an afternoon 's fun , like any schoolboy , and catch XXXXX with an iron hook .
Lobster Magee Maltese Mangiare Plymouth Tom day left lobsters stick-in-the-mud