I replied that I was sorry, but we need not begin our acquaintance by quarrelling—that it would be better to have a drink together.
Jimmy smiled consent, and I called for another pint for Jimmy and a soda for myself; then added I was so sorry he had taken it that way as I should have liked to hear how he got his bird.
He answered that if I put it that way he wouldn't mind telling me. And everybody was pleased, and composed ourselves once more to listen.
"How I got that there bird was like this," he began. "It were about half after four in the morning, summer before last, an' I was just having what I may call my beauty sleep, when all of a sudding there came a most thundering rat-a-tat-tat at the door.
"'Good Lord,' says my missus, 'whatever is that?'
"'Sounds like a knock at the door,' says I. 'Just slip on your thingamy an' go see.'
"'No,' she says, 'you must go, it might be a man.'
"'No,' I says, 'it ain't nothing of such consekince as that. It's only an old woman come to borrow some castor oil.'
"So she went and bimeby comes back and says: 'It's a man that's called to see you an' it's very important.'
"'Tell him I'm in bed,' says I, 'and can't get up till six o'clock.'