The Old Mans Bag | Page 5

you quite plainly that I wanted a green coat and yellow trousers?"
"I am truly sorry, sir," said the tailor, "but as you no doubt know, the best of us make mistakes sometimes."
"There is something in that," said the policeman, "and if the suit fits me I will forgive you."
Then he went into his dressing-room and put on the yellow coat and the green trousers. They fitted him beautifully. So that he forgave the tailor, and sent round to him to say that he would try to pay his bill when he got some money.
[Illustration: He began to strut about in his new clothes.]
After looking at himself a good deal in the mirror the policeman went out into the street and began to strut about in his new clothes. "This is much better than being a policeman," he said, "a policeman has little to do, but a soldier has nothing to do till he is sent for to fight. By the way I must go and buy a sword, and then I will go up to the old man's house and let him see me in my new clothes. Perhaps he will give me two halfpennies to put in the pockets."
He bought his sword at the toy shop and went straight to the old man's house. When he got there the old woman was in the garden knocking apples off a tree with a clothes prop. No sooner did she see the policeman in his yellow coat and green trousers than she ran screaming into the house, and hid herself under the bed.
[Illustration: The old woman was knocking apples off a tree.]
But when the old man saw him he shouted, "Hurrah, hurrah, the red policeman has turned soldier. Now we needn't be afraid of him any more."
And he called upstairs to his wife, "Come down at once and get me my bag."
The old woman came downstairs quickly. She took down the bag from its nail and handed it to her husband. "Run," she said, "as hard as you can, and bring me a hen and anything else nice that takes your fancy. Bags were made to put things in. And the red policeman--the soldier, that is to say--will stay to dinner."
The soldier sat down in the chair and lit his pipe, and the old man went out with the bag. Very soon he returned with two hens, a fat duck, several rolls of butter, a large piece of bacon, some cabbages, some ice cream, and two pots of marmalade.
The old woman cooked everything but the ice cream and the marmalade, and they had a very good dinner indeed.
"This is much better than being a policeman," said the soldier when they had finished.
"I should just think it was," said the old man.
"And so should I," said the old woman.
"Now I must wish you both good evening," said the soldier, "for I hear the bugle calling."
CHAPTER VIII.
When a soldier hears the bugle calling he is bound to go even if he would like to have stayed for supper. That is why the soldier went.
"I am glad I am not a soldier," said the old man, "because I do not have to go when the bugle calls."
"No," said the old woman, "but you have to go when I tell you, which is pretty much the same thing."
"Perhaps it is," said the old man.
"And I think," said the old woman, "that it might be just as well for you to go out this evening with the bag and get a few nice little things for breakfast and dinner to-morrow. For when you come to think of it there is no reason why the soldier should not take it into his head to be a red policeman again, and if he did he would run after us when he saw us with the bag. So that we had better get what we want before he changes his mind."
"A very good idea, my dear," said the old man, "give me the bag and I will go out at once."
The old woman gave him the bag and off he went.
He was away a very long time. Indeed he did not get back till nearly midnight. When he set the bag down on the table the old woman could see that he had got a good many things, because the bag bulged so.
"How good of you," she said. "Now show me what you have got."
Then the old man opened the bag. First he pulled out a pretty little kitten with her mother, an old grey cat.
"Very nice," said the old woman, "but we can't cook them."
"You cooked the hens," said the old man.
Then he pulled out a pillow case full of hay.
"Quite nice," said the old woman, "but we can't cook it."
"You cooked the cabbages," said the old man.
Then