e with a helmet on it peeping in, I
felt quite a liking for 'em.

"Wot's up?" ses the policeman, staring 'ard at my little party.

They all started telling 'im at once, and I should think if the potman
showed him 'is ear once he showed it to 'im twenty times. He lost his
temper and pushed it away at last, and the potman gave a 'owl that set my
teeth on edge. I waited till they was all finished, and the policeman
trying to get 'is hearing back, and then I spoke up in a quiet way and
told 'im to clear them all off of my wharf.

"They're trespassing," I ses, "all except the skipper and mate here.
They belong to a little wash-tub that's laying alongside, and they're
both as 'armless as they look."

It's wonderful wot a uniform will do. The policeman just jerked his 'ead
and said "out-side," and the men went out like a flock of sheep. The
on'y man that said a word was the carman, who was in such a hurry that 'e
knocked his bad shin against my foot as 'e went by. The thin little
woman was passed out by the policeman in the middle of a speech she was
making, and he was just going for the other, when the skipper stopped
'im.

"This lady is coming on my ship," he ses, puffing out 'is chest.

I looked at 'im, and then I turned to the policeman. "So long as she
goes off my wharf, I don't mind where she goes," I ses. "The skipper's
goings-on 'ave got nothing to do with me."

"Then she can foller him 'ome in the morning," ses the skipper. "Good
night, watch-man."

Him and the mate 'elped the silly old thing to the ship, and, arter I 'ad
been round to the Bear's Head and fetched a pint for the police-man, I
locked up and sat down to think things out; and the more I thought the
worse they seemed. I've 'eard people say that if you have a clear
conscience nothing can hurt you. They didn't know my missus.

I got up at last and walked on to the jetty, and the woman, wot was
sitting on the deck of the John Henry, kept calling out: "Bill!" like a
sick baa-lamb crying for its ma. I went back, and 'ad four pints at the
Bear's Head, but it didn't seem to do me any good, and at last I went and
sat down in the office to wait for morning.

It came at last, a lovely morning with a beautiful sunrise; and that
woman sitting up wide awake, waiting to foller me 'ome. When I opened
the gate at six o'clock she was there with the mate and the skipper,
waiting, and when I left at five minutes past she was trotting along
beside me.