" said Aunt Barbree.

"There's a complete change coming over my constitution," said Nandy,
pensive-like. "I feel it hardening every day: and as for my skull, why--
talk about Brazil nuts!--I believe I could crack cherry-stones with it."

"I beg you won't try," pleaded Aunt Barbree, for this trick of Nandy's
always gave her the shivers.

"A head like mine was meant for something worthier than civil life.
I've been turnin' it over--"

"Turnin' _what_ over?"

"Things in general," said Nandy; "and the upshot is, I've a great mind to
'list for a sojer."

"The good Lord forbid!" cried Aunt Barbree.

"The Frenchies might shoot me, to be sure," Nandy allowed. "That's one
way of looking at it. But King George would take the risk o' that, and
give me a shilling down for it."

"O Nandy, Nandy--here's a shillin' for 'ee, if that's what you want!
But be a good boy, and don't talk so irreligious!"

Well, sir, the lad knew he had the whip-hand of the poor woman, and the
taller he grew the more the lazy good-for-nothing used it. Enlistment was
his trump card, and he went to the length of buying a drill-book and
practising the motions in odd corners of the garden, but always so that
his aunt should catch him at it. If she was slow in catching him, the
young villain would draw attention by calling out words from the manual in
a hollow voice, mixed up with desperate ones of his own composing--
"_At the word of command the rear rank steps back one pace, the whole
facing to the left, the left files then taking a side step to the left and
a pace to the rear. Ready, p'sent! Ha, what do I see afore me? Is't the
hated foeman?_"--and so on, and so on. Aunt Barbree, with tears in her
eyes, would purse out sums varying from sixpence to half a crown, coaxing
him to dismiss such murderous thoughts from his mind; and thereupon he'd
take another turn and mope, saying that it ill became a lad of his inches,
let alone his tremenjous spirit, to idle out his days while others were
dying for their country; to oblige his aunt he would stand it as long as
he could, but nobody need be surprised if he ended by drowning himself,
And this frightened Aunt Barbree almost worse than did his talk of
enlisting, and drove her one day, when Nandy had just turned seventeen,
to take a walk up the valley to consult Dr. Clatworthy.

II.

Dr. Clatworthy was a man in many respects uncommon. To begin with, he had
plenty of money; and next, he was