“Tell you what then, sir, I’ll go and lie down for an hour or two, and get here again before it’s light.”
“Very well,” said Uncle Richard. “I’ll fasten the gate after you. Good-night. No: you run to the gate with him, Tom.”
“All right, uncle,” cried the boy; and then, “Oh my! how stiff my knees are. How are yours, David?” he continued, as they walked to the gate.
“Bit of a touch o’ rheumatiz in ’em, sir. Ground’s rayther damp. Good-night, sir. We’ll have him yet.”
“Good-night,” said Tom. “But I say, David, did you have a good nap?”
“Good what, sir? Nap? Me have a nap? Why, you don’t think as I went to sleep?”
“No, I don’t think so,” cried Tom, laughing.
“Don’t you say that now, sir; don’t you go and say such a word. Come, I do like that: me go to sleep? Why, sir, it was you, and you got dreaming as I slep’. I do like that.”
“All right, David. Good-night.”
Tom closed the gate, and ten minutes later he was in bed asleep.