The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Gallant Grenadier, by F.S. Brereton

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Title: A Gallant Grenadier
A Tale of the Crimean War

Author: F.S. Brereton

Illustrator: Wal Paget

Release Date: June 20, 2010 [EBook #32930]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GALLANT GRENADIER ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

A Gallant Grenadier, by Captain F.S. Brereton, RAMC.

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A GALLANT GRENADIER, BY CAPTAIN F.S. BRERETON, RAMC.

CHAPTER ONE.

PHILIP WESTERN.

"You positively annoy me, Joseph, and make me feel more angry than I
care to admit. The matter is a serious one, and I am deeply distressed.
After thirteen years of the most careful bringing-up there is complete
and absolute failure. It is a miserable reward. And then, to make
matters worse, you laugh at me, and egg the lad on to even greater
crimes!"

"Fiddlesticks, sir! Humbug! A miserable reward indeed!" was the
spirited answer. "No one but yourself would admit it. He is a fine
lad, though a little wild I will own; but for all that a generous,
good-hearted boy. Let him alone! Don't worry him with all these
goody-goody ideas. There is plenty of time for him to settle down, and
meanwhile he will come to no harm, and, I'll be bound, will bring no
discredit on you." The speaker shook his head knowingly, and helped
himself to a large pinch of snuff.

"How can you argue like that, Joseph, when you know what the lad has
done?" the former speaker replied with much sternness. "I hold
practical joking to be at any time disgraceful, but when one's adopted
son is one of three who actually laid a booby-trap for the mayor of this
town in broad daylight, and made him a laughing-stock for all, then
discreditable is the least one can say of it. It is positively
scandalous."

"Nonsense, Edward! Barrington deserved all he got. He is an odious
man, and the fright those youngsters gave him will teach him to mind his
own business in future, and not meddle with other people's affair