At dinner-time, when William had finished his meal and wanted to be off again — he was then eleven years old — his mother said to him:
“What did you tear Alfred Anthony’s collar for?”
“When did I tear his collar?”
“I don’t know when, but his mother says you did.”
“Why — it was yesterday — an’ it was torn a’ready.”
“But you tore it more.”
“Well, I’d got a cobbler as ‘ad licked seventeen — an’Alfy Ant’ny ‘e says:
‘Adam an’ Eve an’ pinch-me, Went down to a river to bade. Adam an’ Eve got drownded, Who do yer think got saved?’