Absorbed in his emotions, he was startled by a step on the veranda.
He rose swiftly to put the child in the cot, but it was too late, and he turned to the door with the child in his arms, ashamed and defiant, like a boy caught with the jam-pot.

He expected Mrs Yabsley or Ada; it was Chook, breathless with haste.

He stood in the doorway, dumb with amazement as his eye took in this strange picture; then his face relaxed in a grin.
"Well, Gawd strike me any colour 'E likes, pink for preference," he cried, and shook with laughter.
Jonah stared at him with a deepening scowl, till chuckles died away.
"Garn!" he cried at last, and his voice was between a whine and a snarl; "yer needn't poke borak!".