yin' to humour 'im, 'it's his dog he's whistlin' for,
not you. His dog's somewhere where you can't see it. He doesn't want
you. You lie back again, and go to sleep.' 'No, no,' sez he; 'there's no
dog, and the sheep's runnin' everywhere, thousands on 'em. It's me he's
whistlin' for, and we must whistle back to say I'm comin'. Fetch it down
from the nail, Polly. There he is again! He's the tallest shepherd I
ever saw. He's one of them four that was in the room just now. Whistle
back, Polly, and then it'll be all right.' And so he kep' on, again and
again.

"Mrs. Rowe, who'd come into the room, said to me, 'If I was you, Mrs.
Dellanow, I'd fetch the whistle and blow it. It'll quiet 'im, and then
p'raps he'll go to sleep.'

"You can understand, sir, that I was that upset I didn't know what I was
doing. But when he kep' on callin' and beseechin' I thought I'd better
do as Mrs. Rowe recommended. So I went down and took the whistle from
that nail--the same where you see it hangin' now. When I got back I
couldn't somehow bring myself to do it, so I gives it to 'im to blow
'isself. But, oh dear, to see the poor thing trying to put it to his
mouth ... it a'most broke my heart. So I took it from 'im, and blowed it
myself three times as he wanted me. To think o' me standin' by my own
'usband's dyin'-bed and blowin' a whistle!

"When I'd done, he says, 'That's all right; he knows I'm comin' now. But
it'll take a long time to gather all them sheep.'

"For a bit he was quite still, and both me and Mrs. Rowe sat watchin',
when, all of a sudden, he starts up again and sez, 'Listen, he's goin'
to blow again,' Well, sir, I dare say you won't believe what I'm going
to tell yer, but it's as true as I'm standin' 'ere. He'd hardly got the
words out of his mouth when I hears a whistle blown three
times--leastways I thought I did--as it might be coming from the top of
that 'ill you see over there. There weren't no other sounds, for it was
as still a night as could be. But there was someone whistling, and Mrs.
Rowe 'eard it too. If you don't believe me, you can ask her. I nearly
dropped on the floor, and I knew from that minute that my 'usband was
going to die.

"You see, sir, my 'usband was never what you might call a religious man.
He were more of a readin' man, my 'usband was--papers and books and all
sorts o' things--more'n was good for 'im, I often used to say. You can
see a lot on 'em on that little shelf. If it hadn't been that they