ished, if he could, to change with
Jan. And by good luck 'twas done, and we was sent to the new
battalion. So there we stayed to Gloucester nighly four year. Those
was the days when they said that Boney was a-coming over, but he never
come, as you know very well, for he didn't dare.

"And at Gloucester it was that I had a little maid born to me, so sweet
a little maid as ever was seen, with blue eyes and golden hair like
your own little lady's. But there was a terrible lot of sickness among
the men. Whether it was that our other battalion brought it back from
Egypt, I can't tell, but so it was. The men died fast, for all that
the doctors would do was to bleed mun like pigs; and whether it was
that, or what it was, I couldn't say, but the little maid sickened and
died, when she was fifteen months old. Jan was terrible distressed, I
mind, and so was I; but since then I've a-thought often that it was
better so.

"But Jan and the boy kept well and strong, and as the boy growed
bigger, he got mazed with soldiering. Nothing would sarve mun but he
must be a drummer; and one of the drummers took up with mun and taught
mun almost so soon as he was big enough to hold the sticks, and it was
wonderful to see how quick he learned. It was pretty, too, to see his
little hands a-twinkling, for very soon he could beat so well as any of
mun. So he became a bit of a favourite, for he was a sweet pretty boy,
and the officers took notice of mun, and the tailor he made mun a
little coat and breeches and dressed mun out for all the world like a
riglar drummer. For the tailor's wife hadn't no children you see, my
Lady, and was wonderful took up with my boy; and Jan he made her a
beautiful pair of shoes in return, I mind. And it was a saying that
our ridgment had the smallest drummer in the army, and the best. Look
'ee, I've a kept the very coat."

And she pulled the outer clothes off the sick man's chest, and showed
the little coat which Dick had worn, tied by the sleeves about his
neck. He moved slightly and his mother poured a few drops of wine
between his lips; but he made no further sign of revival, and she went
on with her story.

"Well, it was in the year seven, I mind well, that the other battalion
of the ridgment was sent to the war in Denmark and then on to
Portingale. I didn't like that, for it seemed that the war was coming
nigh home to us, and our good luck had lasted long; and I couldn't
never get the old Betsy