Peninsular campaign, and
who had been in the habit of entertaining his friends and family with
such graphic accounts of storming breaches, bombarding fortresses,
lopping off heads, arms, and legs, screwing bayonets into men's gizzards
and livers, and otherwise agonising human frames, and demolishing human
handiwork, that the hair of his auditors' heads would certainly have
stood on end if that capillary proceeding had been at all possible.

But Teddy Maroon did not admit the force of his friend's arguments. He
allowed, indeed, that war was a great work, inasmuch as it was a great
evil, whereas lighthouse-building was a great blessing; and he
contended, that while the first was a cause of unmitigated misery, and
productive of nothing better than widows, orphans, and national debts,
the second was the source of immense happiness, and of salvation to
life, limb, and property.

To this John Bowden objected, and Teddy Maroon retorted, whereupon a war
of words began, which speedily waged so hot that the pipes of both
combatants went out, and old John Potter found it necessary to assume
the part of peace-maker, in which, being himself a keen debater, he
failed, and there is no saying what might have been the result of it if
old Martha had not brought the action to a summary close by telling her
visitors in shrill tones to "hold their noise." This they did after
laughing heartily at the old woman's fierce expression of countenance.

Before parting, however, they all agreed without deciding the question
at issue--that lighthouse-building was truly a noble work.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1758.

The contrast was pleasant; repose after toil,--for stone-cutting in the
yard on shore was rest compared with the labour at the Rock. Steady,
regular, quiet progress; stone after stone added to the great pile,
tested and ready for shipment at the appointed time. The
commander-in-chief planning, experimenting, superintending. The men
busy as bees; and, last but not least, delightful evenings with friends,
and recountings of the incidents of the war. Such is the record of the
winter.

The spring of 1758 came; summer advanced. The builders assumed the
offensive, and sent out skirmishers to the Rock, where they found that
the enemy had taken little or no rest during the winter, and were as
hard at it as ever. Little damage, however, had been done.

The attacking party suffered some defeats at the outset. They found