-room when ut's emptied.
Bein' but a shlip av a girl, she went pink at seein' me, an' I twisted
me mustache an' looked at a picture forninst the wall. Never show a
woman that ye care the snap av a finger for her, an', begad, she'll
come bleatin' to your boot heels."

"I suppose that's why you followed Annie Bragin till everybody in the
married quarters laughed at you," said I, remembering that unhallowed
wooing, and casting off the disguise of drowsiness.

"I'm layin' down the gineral theory av the attack," said Mulvaney,
driving his foot into the dying fire. "If you read the 'Soldier's
Pocket-Book,' which never any soldier reads, you'll see that there are
exceptions. When Dinah was out av the door (an' 'twas as tho' the
sunlight had gone too), 'Mother av Hiven, sergint!' sez I, 'but is that
your daughter?' 'I've believed that way these eighteen years,' sez
ould Shadd, his eyes twinklin'. 'But Mrs. Shadd has her own opinion,
like ivry other woman.' ''Tis wid yours this time, for a mericle,' sez
Mother Shadd. 'Then why, in the name av fortune, did I never see her
before?' sez I. 'Bekaze you've been thraipsin' round wid the married
women these three years past. She was a bit av a child till last year,
an' she shot up wid the spring,' sez ould Mother Shadd. 'I'll thraipse
no more,' sez I. 'D'you mane that?' sez ould Mother Shadd, lookin' at
me sideways, like a hen looks at a hawk whin the chickens are runnin'
free. 'Try me, an' tell,' sez I. Wid that I pulled on my gloves,
dhrank off the tea, an' wint out av the house as stiff as at gineral
p'rade, for well I knew that Dinah Shadd's eyes were in the small av my
back out av the scullery window. Faith, that was the only time I
mourned I was not a cav'lryman, for the sake av the spurs to jingle.

"I wint out to think, an' I did a powerful lot av thinkin', but ut all
came round to that shlip av a girl in the dotted blue dhress, wid the
blue eyes an' the sparkil in them. Thin I kept off canteen, an' I kept
to the married quarthers or near by on the chanst av meetin' Dinah.
Did I meet her? Oh, my time past, did I not, wid a lump in my throat
as big as my valise, an' my heart goin' like a farrier's forge on a
Saturday mornin'! 'Twas 'Good-day to ye, Miss Dinah,' an' 'Good-day
t'you, corp'ril,' for a week or two, an' divil a bit further could I
get, bekase av the respict I had to that girl that I cud ha' broken
betune finger an' thumb."

Here I giggled as I re