, little
thinking what fierce masters the trampled slaves could turn out, if ever
they had their day--the day that the old proverb says is sure to come
for every dog; and there was not a soul among us then that had the least
bit of suspicion that the dog--by which, you know, I mean the Indian
generally--was going mad, and sharpening those teeth of his ready to
bite.

Well, as a matter of course, there were other people in our regiment
that I ought to mention: Captain Dyer I did name; but there was a
lieutenant, a very good-looking young fellow, who was a great favourite
with Mrs Colonel Maine; and he dined a deal with them at all times,
besides being a great chum of Captain Dyer's--they two shooting
together, and being like brothers, though there was a something in
Lieutenant Leigh that I never seemed to take to. Then there was the
doctor--a Welshman he was, and he used to make it his boast that our
regiment was about the healthiest anywhere; and I tell you what it is,
if you were ill once, and in hospital, as we call it--though, you know,
with a marching regiment that only means anywhere till you get well--I
say, if you were ill once, and under his hands, you'd think twice before
you made up your mind to be ill again, and be very bad too before you
went to him. Pestle, we used to call him, though his name was Hughes;
and how we men did hate him, mortally, till we found out his real
character, when we were lying cut to pieces almost, and him ready to cry
over us at times as he tried to bring us round. "Hold up, my lads,"
he'd say, "only another hour, and you'll be round the corner!" when what
there was left of us did him justice. Then, of course, there were other
officers, and some away with the major and another battalion of our
regiment at Wallahbad; but they've nothing to do with my story.

I do not think I can do better than introduce you to our mess on the
very morning of this halt, when, after cooling myself with a pipe, just
the same as I should have warmed myself with a pipe if it had been in
Canady or Nova Scotia, I walked up to find all ready for breakfast, and
Mrs Bantem making the tea.

Some of the men didn't fail to laugh at us who took our tea for
breakfast; but all the same I liked it, for it always took me home, tea
did--and to the days when my poor old mother used to say that there
never was such a boy for bread and butter as I was; not as there was
ever so much butter that she need have grumbled