ce.

"He come round at last, and with nothing stronger than water, which Mrs.
Smith kept pouring into 'is mouth. First thing we noticed was that the
smile went, then 'is eyes opened, and suddenly 'e sat up with a shiver
and gave such a dreadful scream that we thought at first the tiger was on
top of us.

"Then 'e told us 'ow he was sitting washing 'is shirt in a ditch, when he
'eard a snuffling noise and saw the 'ead of a big tiger sticking through
the hedge the other side. He left 'is shirt and ran, and 'e said that,
fortunately, the tiger stopped to tear the shirt to pieces, else 'is last
hour would 'ave arrived.

"When 'e 'ad finished Smith went upstairs and looked out of the bedroom
winders, but 'e couldn't see any signs of the tiger, and 'e said no doubt
it 'ad gone down to the village to see wot it could pick up, or p'raps it
'ad eaten John Biggs.

"However that might be, nobody cared to go outside to see, and after it
got dark we liked going 'ome less than ever.

"Up to ten o'clock we did very well, and then Smith began to talk about
'is license. He said it was all rubbish being afraid to go 'ome, and
that, at any rate, the tiger couldn't eat more than one of us, and while
'e was doing that there was the chance for the others to get 'ome safe.
Two or three of 'em took a dislike to Smith that night and told 'im so.

"The end of it was we all slept in the tap-room that night. It seemed
strange at first, but anything was better than going 'ome in the dark,
and we all slept till about four next morning, when we woke up and found
the tramp 'ad gone and left the front door standing wide open.

"We took a careful look-out, and by-and-by first one started off and then
another to see whether their wives and children 'ad been eaten or not.
Not a soul 'ad been touched, but the wimmen and children was that scared
there was no doing anything with 'em. None o' the children would go to
school, and they sat at 'ome all day with the front winder blocked up
with a mattress to keep the tiger out.

"Nobody liked going to work, but it 'ad to be done and as Farmer Gill
said that tigers went to sleep all day and only came out toward evening
we was a bit comforted. Not a soul went up to the 'Cauliflower' that
evening for fear of coming 'ome in the dark, but as nothing 'appened that
night we began to 'ope as the tiger 'ad travelled further on.

"Bob Pretty laughed at the whole thing and said 'e didn't believe there
was a