“Close call for me, that there was,” he said to himself. “Another minute, an’ I’d ’a’ been inside o’ that there stable door, an’ ’e’d ’a’ come plump onto me; that’s w’at ’e’d ’a’ done. Queer thing, anyway. W’y didn’t ’e take the ’oss, I want to know, an’ not be scarin’ honest folk out o’ their seving senses that way for nothink?”