`Yes, it is,' said Jack; `it's very funny. Well, how's your face
this morning, Joe?'

He seemed a lot more serious than usual.

We were hard at work all the morning cleaning out the big wool-shed
and getting it ready for the dance, hanging hoops for the candles,
making seats, &c. I kept out of sight of the girls as much as I could.
One side of my face was a sight and the other wasn't too classical.
I felt as if I had been stung by a swarm of bees.

`You're a fresh, sweet-scented beauty now, and no mistake, Joe,'
said Jimmy Nowlett -- he was going to play the accordion that night.
`You ought to fetch the girls now, Joe. But never mind,
your face'll go down in about three weeks. My lower jaw is crooked yet;
but that fight straightened my nose, that had been knocked crooked
when I was a boy -- so I didn't lose much beauty by it.'

When we'd done in the shed, Jack took me aside and said --

`Look here, Joe! if you won't come to the dance to-night -- and I can't say
you'd ornament it -- I tell you what you'll do. You get little Mary away
on the quiet and take her out for a stroll -- and act like a man.
The job's finished now, and you won't get another chance like this.'

`But how am I to get her out?' I said.

`Never you mind. You be mooching round down by the big peppermint-tree
near the river-gate, say about half-past ten.'