"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.'
"Well, after a lot of grumbling, she went again, then came back and
says the man won't go away till he seen me, as it's very important.
'Something about a bird,' she says.
"'A bird!' I says, 'what d'you mean by a bird?'
"'A rook!' she says.
"'A rook!' says I. 'Is he a madman, or what?'
"'He's a man at the door,' she says, 'an' he won't go away till he sees
you, so you'd better git up and see him.'
"'All right, old woman,' I says, 'I'll git up as you say I must, and
I'll smash him. Get me something to put on,' I says.
"'No,' she says, 'don't smash him'; and she give me something to put on,
weskit and trousers, so I put on the weskit and got one foot in a
slipper, and went out to him with the trousers in my hand. And there he
was at the door, sure enough, a tramp!
"'Now, my man,' says I, very severe-like, 'what's this something
important you've got me out of bed at four of the morning for? Is it
the end of the world, or what?'
"He looked at me quite calm and said it was something important but not
that - not the end of the world. 'I'm sorry to disturb you,' he says,
'but women don't understand things properly,' he says, 'an' I always
think it best to speak to a man.'
"'That's all very well,' I says, 'but how long do you intend to keep me
here with nothing but this on?'
"'I'm just coming to it,' he says, not a bit put out. 'It's like this,'
he says. 'I'm from the north - Newcastle way - an' on my way to
Dorchester, looking for work,' he says.
"'Yes, I see you are!' says I, looking him up and down, fierce-like.
