He didn’t say much more. And we went towards home then. But before we came to the house, he turned off into another path.
A little while after, I heard somebody walking behind me. I looked round, and there was the master. He’d been watching with a sick man all night.
He asked me where I had been so early. I said I had been taking a walk. He asked who the boy was that had just left me. I said ’t was Tom Cush. He asked if I was willing to tell what we had been talking about. I said I would rather not tell.
Says he, “It has a bad look, your being out with that boy so early, after what happened last night.”
Then he asked me where I had found my overjacket. I said, “In my chamber, sir, on a chair-back.”
“And how came it there?” says he.
“I don’t know, sir,” says I.
And, Grandmother, I almost cried; for everything seemed going against me, to make me out a bad boy. I will tell the rest after supper.
Your affectionate grandchild,
William Henry.