pavement. When we were safe, she said the gal 'adn't slipped at all;
and, as soon as the gal 'ad got 'er breath, I'm blest if she didn't say
so too.

"You can't argufy with jealous people, and you can't shame 'em. When I
told my missis once that I should never dream of being jealous of her,
instead of up and thanking me for it, she spoilt the best frying-pan we
ever had. When the widder-woman next-door but two and me 'ad rheumatics
at the same time, she went and asked the doctor whether it was catching.

"The worse trouble o' that kind I ever got into was all through trying to
do somebody else a kindness. I went out o' my way to do it; I wasted the
whole evening for the sake of other people, and got into such trouble
over it that even now it gives me the cold shivers to think of.

"Cap'n Tarbell was the man I tried to do a good turn to; a man what used
to be master of a ketch called the Lizzie and Annie, trading between
'ere and Shoremouth. 'Artful Jack' he used to be called, and if ever a
man deserved the name, he did. A widder-man of about fifty, and as silly
as a boy of fifteen. He 'ad been talking of getting married agin for
over ten years, and, thinking it was only talk, I didn't give 'im any
good advice. Then he told me one night that 'e was keeping company with
a woman named Lamb, who lived at a place near Shoremouth. When I asked
'im what she looked like, he said that she had a good 'art, and, knowing
wot that meant, I wasn't at all surprised when he told me some time arter
that 'e had been a silly fool.

"'Well, if she's got a good 'art,' I ses, 'p'r'aps she'll let you go.'

"'Talk sense,' he ses. 'It ain't good enough for that. Why, she