"Gord save our gracious Queen."'
Jerry rose solemnly and took off his cap as the notes of the National Anthem floated out over the garden mound into the crisp morning air, in which even the nearer shadows showed blue as the distant ones.
'I thought that would be it myself,' he commented, heaving a sigh of relief, 'but I'm glad to be sure. Thanks, so much.'
The others, duteously following his lead, had risen also, and now Jân-Ali-shân, who had reached for the helmet which had been lying on the steps beside him, stood looking into it with a half-prayerful expression before putting it on: for time was passing, and he was due at his work.
'You're welcome, sir, kindly welcome,' he said, after a pause. 'So jest you wait patient--say six-an'-thirty year. An' then, if you ain't got an 'ero's grave of your own as you can slip into when you fancies it--why, John Ellison--that's me, sir--'ll up an' give you 'is, an'--an'--chanst the constant wickedness! There, sir'--he spoke with conscious pride in the magnitude of his offer--' I can't say fairer nor that, so there's my 'and on it; for if ever there was a chip of the old block, it's you, sir--the chippiest of the chippiest.'
He reached out a big brown paw, and Jerry with great dignity laid his soft white one in it.
'Thanks orfully,' said the child, 'but I won't bovver you; I'll get one of my vewy own, please.'
'You bet!' remarked Jân-Ali-shân briefly. 'That's the game to play. Same as 'im and me played forty years back. Same's you and some other chap'll play forty years on. Time's no hobject, only a comfortable 'ome. Well, good day to you, sir; an' if ever you wants John Ellison, you'll find me here, mornin's and evenin's, most days, on my way to work; for 'e and me's been pals a many years.'
As he walked off jauntily, his hands in his pockets, he paraphrased 'John Anderson my Jo' into Ellison, and put the expression stop full on at the last quatrain.
'Now we maun totter down, John,
But hand in hand we'll come
'nd sleep together at the foot.'