Well, if I run off on this, I shall forget all about the story I've got to tell; and that wouldn't do at all. Most folks would rather hear a story than be preached to.
It came all as a sort of surprise to me one day, when my husband said to me unexpected-like—
"Annie," said he, "I've set my mind on a day by the sea."
"You have, Jervis!" says I; for I couldn't think whatever he was at.
"A nice long day by the sea," says he. "I'll get a day off work— they'll give it me, I'm always so regular—and we'll go early. We'll get to Ermespoint by ten o'clock," says he, "and we won't be home again till past nine at night."
"It'll cost a lot," said I.
"That's the first thought with you," says he. "And I'm not blaming my little woman, either." He often called me his "little woman"—not as I was so especial small, only I was sort of thin, and I'd small bones; and though he wasn't uncommon tall, he was of a broad make, with big hands, and very strong. "I'm not blaming you for it," said he. "If you weren't such a careful body as you are, why, we shouldn't have such a comfortable home as we've got. It's the woman of a house has to do with that, I know well enough," says he. "But all the same, Annie, I do think we've earned a day's pleasuring; and I don't think it'll be money thrown away. I'd like to be out of it all for once. I spent a day in Ermespoint years ago, and I've never forgot it; and I'd like the children to have just such another day to look back on."
Well I didn't go against him, though I couldn't help thinking what a nice sum all those fares together would make to add to our savings in the Post Office Bank. Not only him and me, but Miles and Louey, and Rosie and Bessie. And only the two youngest would go for half-fares. Louey was over twelve, though she didn't look it; and some of the neighbours advised us to pass her off for younger, but Jervis wouldn't hear of it. "I'm not going to tell lies for nobody," said he in his sturdy sort of way; "and I don't see as it's any less dishonest to cheat the Company than to cheat a man. Louey's over twelve, and she shan't make believe to be under."
That's how it was Jervis got to be trusted. Nobody ever found him out in untruthful or crooked ways, and so they got to know they might depend on him always.
Well, as I was saying, I wouldn't go against him, though I had my doubts if he was wise, and I've often and often wished since that we hadn't gone!