rrupted
meal, but though at first it seemed to revive her a good deal, the poor
little thing was evidently tired out, and she soon began to drag, and
fret, and moan. The three miles was a long way for her, and tired as he
was, Steadfast had to take her on his back, and when at last he reached
home, and would have set her down before his astonished sisters, she was
fast asleep with her head on his shoulder.

CHAPTER XI. THE FORTUNES OF WAR.

"Hear and improve, he pertly cries,
I come to make a nation wise."
GAY

Very early in the morning, before indeed anyone except Patience was
stirring, Steadfast set forth in search of Roger Fitter to consult him
about the poor child who was fast asleep beside Jerusha; and propose to
him to take her into Bristol to find her father.

Hodge, who had celebrated his return by a hearty supper with his
friends, was still asleep, and his mother was very unwilling to call
him, or to think of his going back to the wars. However, he rolled down
the cottage stair at last, and the first thing he did was to observe--

"Well, mother, how be you? I felt like a boy again, waking up in the old
chamber. Where's my back and breast-piece? Have you a cup of ale, while
I rub it up?"

"Now, Hodge, you be not going to put on that iron thing again, when
you be come back safe and sound from those bloody wars?" entreated his
mother.

"Ho, ho! mother, would you have me desert? No, no! I must to my colours
again, or Sir George and my lady might make it too hot to hold you here.
Hollo, young one, Stead Kenton, eh? Didst find thy brother? No, I'll be
bound. The Roundhead rascals have all the luck."

"I found something else," said Steadfast, and he proceeded to tell about
the child while Dame Fitter stood by with many a pitying "Dear heart!"
and "Good lack!"

Hodge knew Serjeant Gaythorn, and knew that the poor man's wife had been
shot dead in the flight from Naseby; but he demurred at the notion
of encumbering himself with the child when he went into the town. He
suspected that he should have much ado to get in himself, and if he
could not find her father, what could he do with her?

Moreover, he much doubted whether the serjeant was alive. He had been
among those on whom the sharpest attack had fallen, and not many of them
had got off alive.

"What like was he?" said Steadfast. "We looked at a many of the poor
corpses that lay there. They'll ne