When the old man and his wife woke up next morning they looked out of
the window and saw that the weather was quite fine. The old man began
to whistle and sing. He always did this when the weather was fine
because he said fine weather always made him feel in such good spirits.
In a little while the old woman began to sing too. Then the old man
stopped.
"What are you singing for?" he said to the old woman.
"I feel in such good spirits," the old woman replied.
"Oh, you do, do you?" said the old man. "You appear to forget that the
red policeman is coming for you."
"Oh dear, oh dear," said the old woman. "What a bad memory I have to be
sure. Whatever shall I do?" And she burst into tears.
"There, there," said the old man, "don't cry. We will give him sixpence
when he calls, and ask him to have a piece of bread and butter with jam
on it. Then perhaps he will go away."
They went downstairs and had breakfast. They had just finished when
there came an awfully loud knock at the door. The old woman went very
pale.
"It is the red policeman," she said.
The old man went to open the door. But the old woman pulled him back.
"You are forgetting the sixpence," she said, "and the piece of bread
and butter with jam on it."
"Of course, of course," said the old man, and he felt in his pocket for
sixpence while the old woman cut a nice large thick slice of bread and
covered it with butter and jam.
"Perhaps after all," said the old man, "we had better not open the
door, but hand the policeman the sixpence and the bread and butter with
jam on it through the window."
So he opened the window a little way and held out the sixpence and the
bread and butter with jam on it to the person outside.
"Thanks very much," said the person outside. And he put the sixpence in
his pocket and began to eat the bread and butter with jam on it. And
when he had finished eating he knocked again very loudly at the door.
"Go away," said the old man. "My wife is not coming out with you
to-day."
"I don't want your wife to come out with me," said the person at the
door; "I have called to look at the gas meter."
"We haven't got a gas meter now," said the old man, "we burn nothing
but electric light."
"Many, many thanks," said the person at the door, and he went away.
"I feel all of a flutter," said the old woman, sinking into a chair.
"So do I," said the old man. "And he has got my sixpence too."