ts off. 'What
makes you talk like that?' I sez. 'You knows as you was ever so much
better last night. When you've had yer medicine you'll be all right.' He
said nowt for a time, but just sat, tremblin' and shiverin' in his
chair. So I sez, 'Hadn't you better 'ave the doctor?' 'It's no good,' he
sez; 'I'm come 'ome for the last time. It'll be good-bye this time,
missis.' 'Not it,' I sez; 'you've got many years to live yet. Why, wot's
to make yer die?' 'It's my 'eart,' he sez; 'it's all flip-floppin' about
inside me, and gurglin' like a stuck pig. It's wore out, and I keep
gettin' that faint.' 'Oh,' I sez, 'cheer up; when you've 'ad a cup o'
tea you'll feel better'; but I'd hardly got the words out o' my mouth
before he were gone in a dead faint.

"We got 'im to bed between the three on us, and, my word, it were a job
gettin' 'im up them narrer stairs! As soon as we'd made 'im comfortable,
he sez to me, 'Wot I told yer's comin' to-night, Polly. They've been
a-callin' on me all day. I see 'em and 'ear 'em, too. Loud as loud.
Plain as plain.' 'Who's been callin' yer?' I sez. 'The messengers o'
death,' he sez; 'and they're in this room, four on 'em, now. I can 'ear
'em movin' and talkin' to one another.' 'Oh,' I sez, 'it's all fancy.
What you 'ear is me and Mrs. Rowe. You lie quiet and go to sleep, and
you'll be better in the mornin'.' He only shook his 'ead and said, 'I
can 'ear 'em.'

"Well, I suppose it was about 'alf a' hour after this when Mrs. Rowe sez
to me, 'He looks like goin' to sleep now, Mrs. Dellanow, so I think I'll
go 'ome and get my master 'is supper'; and she was just goin' down the
stairs when all of a sudden he starts up in bed and sez, 'Do you 'ear
that whistle blowin'?' 'No,' I sez, 'you've been dreamin'. There isn't
nobody whistlin' at this time o' night.' 'Yes,' he sez, 'there is, and
it blowed three times. There's thousands and thousands of sheep, and a
tall shepherd whistlin' to his dog. But he's got no dog, and it's me
he's whistlin' for.'

"Now, sir, you must understand that my 'usband when he was with the
sheep used to work his dog wi' whistlin' instead of shoutin' to it as
most shepherds do. You can see his whistle hangin' on that nail--that's
where he hung it 'isself for twenty-five years. You see, he was kind o'
superstitious and used to say it was bad luck to keep yer whistle in yer
pocket when you went to bed. So he always hung it on that nail, the last
thing at night.

"'Why,' I sez, tr