"
"Then she can foller him 'ome in the morning," ses the skipper. "Good
night, watch-man."
Him and the mate 'elped the silly old thing to the ship, and, arter I 'ad
been round to the Bear's Head and fetched a pint for the police-man, I
locked up and sat down to think things out; and the more I thought the
worse they seemed. I've 'eard people say that if you have a clear
conscience nothing can hurt you. They didn't know my missus.
I got up at last and walked on to the jetty, and the woman, wot was
sitting on the deck of the John Henry, kept calling out: "Bill!" like a
sick baa-lamb crying for its ma. I went back, and 'ad four pints at the
Bear's Head, but it didn't seem to do me any good, and at last I went and
sat down in the office to wait for morning.
It came at last, a lovely morning with a beautiful sunrise; and that
woman sitting up wide awake, waiting to foller me 'ome. When I opened
the gate at six o'clock she was there with the mate and the skipper,
waiting, and when I left at five minutes past she was trotting along
beside me.
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