--take a drop more than he ought, just see how she'd drop on
to him, that's all. If his head didn't ache before, it would ache then;
and I can see as plain now as if it was only this minute, instead of
years ago, her boxing Measles' ears, and threatening to turn him out to
another mess if he didn't keep sober. And she would have turned him
over too, only, as she said to Joe, and Joe told me, it might have been
the poor fellow's ruin, seeing how weak he was, and easily led away.
The long and short of it is, Mrs Bantem was a good motherly woman of
forty; and those who had anything to say against her, said it out of
jealousy, and all I have to say now is what I've said before: she only
had one fault, and that is, she never had any little Bantems to make
wives for honest soldiers to come; and wherever she is, my wish is that
she may live happy and venerable to a hundred.

That brings me to Measles. Bigley his name was; but he'd had the
small-pox very bad when a child, through not being vaccinated; and his
face was all picked out in holes, so round and smooth that you might
have stood peas in them all over his cheeks and forehead, and they
wouldn't have fallen off; so we called him Measles. If any of you say
"Why?" I don't know no more than I have said.

He was a sour-tempered sort of fellow was Measles, who listed because
his sweetheart laughed at him; not that he cared for her, but he didn't
like to be laughed at, so he listed out of spite, as he said, and that
made him spiteful. He was always grumbling about not getting his
promotion, and sneering at everything and everybody, and quarrelling
with Harry Lant, him, you know, as carried the elephant's trunk; while
Harry was never happy without he was teasing him, so that sometimes
there was a deal of hot water spilled in our mess.

And now I think I've only got to name three of the drum-boys, that Mrs
Bantem ruled like a rod of iron, though all for their good, and then
I've done.

Well, we had our breakfast, and thoroughly enjoyed it, sitting out there
in the shade. Measles grumbled about the water, just because it
happened to be better than usual; for sometimes we soldiers out there in
India used to drink water that was terrible lively before it had been
cooked in the kettle; for though water-insects out there can stand a
deal of heat, they couldn't stand a fire. Mrs Bantem was washing up
the things afterwards, and talking about dinner; Harry Lant was picking
up