purpose. P'r'aps he was 'appier where he was than doing six months.

"He was the sort o' chap that'll make himself 'appy anywhere," ses one of
'em, comforting-like.

"Not without me," ses Mrs. Bullet, sobbing, and wiping her eyes on
something she used for a pocket-hankercher. "He never could bear to be
away from me. Was there no last words?"

"On'y one," ses one o' the chaps, Joe Peel by name.

"As 'e fell overboard," ses the other.

Mrs. Bullet began to cry agin, and say wot a good 'usband he 'ad been.
"Seventeen years come Michaelmas," she ses, "and never a cross word.
Nothing was too good for me. Nothing. I 'ad only to ask to 'ave."

"Well, he's gorn now," ses Joe, "and we thought we ought to come round
and tell you."

"So as you can tell the police," ses the other chap.

That was 'ow I came to hear of it fust; a policeman told me that night as
I stood outside the gate 'aving a quiet pipe. He wasn't shedding tears;
his only idea was that Sam 'ad got off too easy.

"Well, well," I ses, trying to pacify 'im, "he won't bite no more
fingers; there's no policemen where he's gorn to."

He went off grumbling and telling me to be careful, and I put my pipe out