A RAILWAY CARRIAGE 97 



lifted her up into that old beech where the green wood- 

 pecker's nest was." 



" Yes, and you took off your coat and breeches to 

 cover her up." 



"And so did you, though I reckon one would have 

 been enough now I come to think of it." 



" I don't know about that. But how we did have to 

 keep on the move all night to keep warm." 



" And dared not go very far for fear of losing the 

 tree." 



"And in the morning I wondered what we should do 

 about getting back our clothes." 



" You wanted me to go because my shirt hadn't any 

 holes in it." 



" But we both went together." 



" And, before we had made up our minds which should 

 go first and call, up she starts. Lord, how she did laugh ! " 



" Ay, she did." 



" And says, ' Now, that's all my eye and Betty Martin, 

 boys'; and so did we laugh, and I never felt a bit silly 

 either. She was a good sort of girl, she was. Man and 

 woman, I never met the likes of her, never heard tell 

 of the equal of her," said the sailor musingly. 



" Married, Harry ? " 



" No, nor likely to be, I don't think. And yourself? " 



" Well, I was. ... I married Maggie. ... It was after 

 the first baby . . ." 



A small boy in a corner could not get on with his 

 novelette : he stared open-mouthed and open-eyed, now 

 and then unconsciously imitating their faces; or he would 

 correct this mere wonderment and become shy and 

 uncomfortable at the frank ways of these men talking 



H 



