"One of them was a bullet-headed thief and he did look as if he had been rolled in tar, and I hope he was. The other was a dandy lad that never got his hair cut since he was a mother's boy.
"'Be off with the pair of you,' said I, 'ye indecent devils. What do ye want with honest folk and you in your pelt?'
"The bullet-headed one was bouncing round me like a rubber ball.
"'Take off your clothes, mister,' said he.
"'What!' said I.
"'Take off your clothes quick,' said he, 'or I'll kill you.'
"So, with that I jumped into the middle of the road, and I up with the goose, and I hit that chap such a welt on the head that the goose bursted. Then the lad was into me and we went round the road like thunder and lightning till the other fellow joined in, and then Mary welted into the lot of us with a stick that she had, but they didn't mind her any more than a fly. Before you could whistle, mister, they had me stripped to the buff, and before you could whistle again they had the girl stripped, and the pair of them were going down the road as hard as ever they could pelt with our clothes under their oxters."
"Begor!" said Billy the Music.
"I tell you so," grinned Patsy.
"There was herself and myself standing in the middle of the road with nothing to cover our nakedness but a bursted goose."