station from the 'ill by the Angel--well, kid, I tell you I saw a reel
mountain for the first time, when I saw thet. It was the 'eat mist, an'
a sort o' pink light made a reel 'ighland landscape out of it. I paid
the taxi-man over 'alf of all the money I 'ad, an' we went to the
ticket-awfice. 'Elbert,' I ses, 'where shell we book to,' I ses, like
that, though I 'adn't 'ardly a bloody oat in me purse. 'Take a platform
ticket,' 'e ses, an' so I did. But 'e run on to the platform without no
ticket, an' begun dancin' up an' down among the people like a mad thing,
but nobody seemed to mind 'im. I set down on a seat to watch 'im. I
thought: 'Blimey,' I thought, 'if I ain't under thet blinkin' mountain
now, an' all these people,' I ses, 'is the Little People they tell of,
that lives inside 'ills, an' on'y comes out under the moon.' I
remembered thet moonlight debt o' mine, an' I thought--'I'm done with
the mud now, I'm comin' alive now,' I ses, 'and this'll be my charnce.'
Presently Elbert come back to me, an' 'e was draggin' a soldier by the
'and. 'This is a magic man,' ses Elbert, 'come back from livin' under
the sky. Can't you feel the magic?' 'e ses.

"Well, dearie, take it 'ow you will, thet's 'ow I met my Sherrie. A
magic man 'e was, for 'e 'ad my ticket taken, an' never seemed
surprised. Ten days leave 'e 'ad, an' we spent it at an inn in a village
on a moor, jest a mile out o' sound of the sea. The moor an' the sea,
touchin' each other. ... Oh Gawd!... The sea was like my sky at night
come nearer--come near enough to know better, like. In between the moor
an' the sea there was the beach--it looked like a blessed boundary road
between two countries, an' it led away to where you couldn't see nothing
more except a little white town, sort of built 'igh upon a mist, more
like a star.... Oh Gawd!...

"Anyway, Cuffbut, thet was me charnce, an' thet's 'ow I come to know 'ow