"I wonder why ?" Peke took a draught of his mixture before replying.

Then corking the bottle, he thrust it in his pocket.
"Ye wonders why ?" And he uttered a sound between a grunt and a chuckle--"Ye may do that! I wonders myself!" And, giving his basket a hitch, he resumed his slow trudging movement onward.
"You see," pursued Helmsley, keeping up the pace beside him, and beginning to take pleasure in the conversation--"I may be anything or anybody----" "Ye may that," agreed Peke, his eyes fixed as usual on the ground.

"Ye may be a jail-bird or a missioner,--they'se much of a muchity, an' goes on the road lookin' quite simple like, an' the simpler they seems the deeper they is.

White 'airs an' feeble legs 'elps 'em along considerable,--nowt's better stock-in-trade than tremblin' shins.

Or ye might be a War-office neglect,--ye looks a bit set that way." "What's a War-office neglect ?" asked Helmsley, laughing.
"One o' them totterin' old chaps as was in the Light Brigade," answered Peke.