“What? Why to see you safe and sound. So you’ve managed to dodge them, Charlie, eh?”
“Yes; and you?”
“Well, you see, I thought it wasn’t of no manner of use my stopping outside that cursed crib. I wasn’t either of use or ornament, and so, thought I to myself, I shall only be making matters worse by hanging about, ’cause you see I had the stuff in the cart.”
“Quite right; it would have been madness to have remained there. So you hooked it, I suppose?”
“I did so. Don’t think I deserted you in the time of need; it wasn’t no fault of mine.”
“You did the best you could under the circumstances. Don’t imagine for a moment that I blame you.”
“S’help my taters, but I have been in muck and no mistake. Didn’t know how it fared with you, and I was in consequence knocked clean silly. Couldn’t tell what to be up to.”
“What did you do, then?”
“Drove off as fast as I could, and got clean out of the neighbourhood. What would you have had me do?”
“Just what you have, old stick-in-the-mud. And how about the baskets?”