“Only this evening, sir.”
“And don’t you know that if I leave you here some one’ll have your bundle, and perhaps you too, before morning?”
“I was so tired, sir, I fell asleep.”
“Come along o’ me. The best thing I can do for you’s to lock you up till morning.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He burst out into a roar of laughter as he turned off the light of his bull’s-eye.
“Come along, youngster,” he said, “it’s all right, I see. Why, you are as green as a gooseberry.”
“Am I, sir?” I said piteously, for I felt very sorry that I was so green, as he called it, but I was too much confused to thoroughly understand what he meant.
“Greener, ever so much. Why, if you’d gone down Covent Garden to sleep amongst the baskets you’d have got swept up for cabbage leaves.”
“Covent Garden Market, sir? Is that close here?” I said.