Going through Urshot Mr. Skinner was hailed by a lime-burner from the
pits over by Hankey and asked if he was looking for his hens.

"You ain't 'eard anything of Mithith Thkinner?" he asked.

The lime-burner--his exact phrases need not concern us--expressed his
superior interest in hens....

It was already dark--as dark at least as a clear night in the English
June can be--when Skinner--or his head at any rate--came into the bar of
the Jolly Drovers and said: "Ello! You 'aven't 'eard anything of thith
'ere thtory bout my 'enth, 'ave you?"

"Oh, _'aven't_ we!" said Mr. Fulcher. "Why, part of the story's been and
bust into my stable roof and one chapter smashed a 'ole in Missis
Vicar's green 'ouse--I beg 'er pardon--Conservarratory."

Skinner came in. "I'd like thomething a little comforting," he said,
"'ot gin and water'th about my figure," and everybody began to tell him
things about the pullets.

"_Grathuth_ me!" said Skinner.

"You 'aven't 'eard anything about Mithith Thkinner, 'ave you?" he asked
in a pause.

"That we 'aven't!" said Mr. Witherspoon. "We 'aven't thought of 'er. We
ain't thought nothing of either of you."

"Ain't you been 'ome to-day?" asked Fulcher over a tankard.