There was a general laugh. "Oh, very well," said Jimmy. "After that
I've nothing more to say about the bird or anything else."
I replied that I was sorry, but we need not begin our acquaintance by
quarrelling - that it would be better to have a drink together.
Jimmy smiled consent, and I called for another pint for Jimmy and a
soda for myself; then added I was so sorry he had taken it that way as
I should have liked to hear how he got his bird.
He answered that if I put it that way he wouldn't mind telling me. And
everybody was pleased, and composed ourselves once more to listen.
"How I got that there bird was like this," he began. "It were about
half after four in the morning, summer before last, an' I was just
having what I may call my beauty sleep, when all of a sudding there
came a most thundering rat-a-tat-tat at the door.
"'Good Lord,' says my missus, 'whatever is that?'
"'Sounds like a knock at the door,' says I. 'Just slip on your thingamy
an' go see.'
"'No,' she says, 'you must go, it might be a man.'
"'No,' I says, 'it ain't nothing of such consekince as that.
