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 lobsters with an iron hook . So to the Mewstone he went , and for lobsters he looked . And when he came to a certain crack in the rocks he was so excited that , instead of putting in his hook , he put in his hand ; and Mr. Lobster was at home , and caught him by the finger , and held on . `` Yah ! '' said the mayor , and pulled as hard as he dared : but the more he pulled , the more the lobster pinched , till he was forced to be quiet . Then he tried to get his hook in with his other hand ; but the hole was too narrow . Then he pulled again ; but he could not stand the pain . Then he shouted and bawled for help : but there was no one nearer him than the men-of-war inside the breakwater . Then he began to turn a little pale ; for the tide flowed , and still the lobster held on . Then he turned quite white ; for the tide was up to his knees , and still the lobster held on . Then he thought of cutting off his finger ; but he wanted two things to do it with -- courage and a knife ; and he had got neither .
Then he turned quite yellow ; for the tide was up to his waist , and still the lobster held XXXXX .
For by inside nearer of on than that to with