"You're very cheerful, Mandy," said Smith.
"And why not?" asked Mandy. "I'm used to be cheerful when I don't see more than a day or two a'ead. If I'd lied down and died becos I couldn't see grub and a doss three days off, I'd 'ave been corpsed years ago."
"And haven't you anything to make you wish to get back home?" asked Smith.
"Not me," said the Baker; "I'm as good 'ere as anywhere. Give me a job, reg'lar for choice, and a chanst to get married when I'm ready, and I'm all right 'ere or in H'england or Ameriky."
Smith laughed.
"Good old man, and would a black woman suit you?"
"No!" said the Baker seriously, "I bar blacks. I want my kids such as will wash white onst a week anyhow. I knowed a woman in the H'east End, she lived in Dragon Court, Whitechapel, as married a nigger, and the time 'er kids 'ad was 'orrid. The hother women took to washin' their kids twiced a week regular, just out of spite, for they 'ated her bad. Her man was 'ead porter to a music 'all, and got 'eaps of tips." And he took to singing,
"She's my rorty carrotty Sal,
And she comes from Whitechap-al,"
with such an air of intense enjoyment and total disengagement from his surroundings, that Smith gave way, and shouted with laughter.
"What yer laffin' at?" asked the Baker with a grin.