Expectancy
An Irishman on a scaffolding four stories high heard the noon whistle.
But when he would have descended, he found that the ladder had been
removed. One of his fellow workmen on the pavement below, to whom he
called, explained that the foreman had carried off the ladder for
another job.
"But how'll I get down?" Pat demanded.
Mike, on the pavement, suggested jumping as the only means. Pat's lunch
was below, he was hungry, and he accepted the suggestion seriously.
"Will yez kitch me?" he demanded.
"Sure, an' I'll do that," Mike agreed.
Pat clapped his arms in imitation of a rooster, and crowed, to bolster
up his courage, and leaped. He regained consciousness after a short
interval, and feebly sat up on the pavement. He regarded Mike
reproachfully.
"For why did yez not kitch me?" he asked, and the pain in bones sounded
in his voice.
"Begorry," Mike replied sympathetically, "I was waiting for yez to
bounce!"