The paper's damp and Jimmy's late to-night;

"Belov'd, if I was rich," was what he said,

O Jim, I wish that God would kill me dead.'

While she was blinking at the unlit grate,

Scratching the moistened match-heads off the wood,

She heard Jim coming, so she reached his plate,

And forked the over-frizzled scraps of food.

'You're late,' she said, 'and this yer isn't good,

Whatever makes you come in late like this?'

'I've been to Plaister's End, that's how it is.'