med now to be a lull, and only a buzzing of voices above us,
mingled with a groan and a dying cry now and then, when I quite forgot
my pain once more on hearing poor Harry Lant, who had for some time been
quite off his head, and raving, commence talking in a quiet sort of way.

"Where's Ike Smith?" he said. "It's all dark here; and I want to say
good-bye to him."

I was kneeling by his side the next minute, holding his hand.

"God bless you, Ike," he said; "and God bless her. I'm going, old mate;
kiss her for me, and tell her that if she hadn't been made for you, I
could have loved her very dearly."

What could I do or say, when the next minute Lizzy was kneeling on his
other side, holding his hand?

"God bless you both," he whispered. "You'll get out of the trouble
after all; and don't forget me."

We promised him we would not, as well as we could, for we were both
choked with sorrow; and then he said, talking quickly: "Give poor old
Sam Measles my tobacco-box, Ike, the brass one, and shake hands with him
for me; and now I want Mother Bantem."

She was by his side directly, to lift him gently in her arms, calling
him her poor gallant boy, her brave lad, and no end of fond expressions.

"I never had a bairn, Harry," she sobbed; "but if I could have had one,
I'd have liked him to be like you, my own gallant, light-hearted soldier
boy; and you were always to me as a son."

"Was?" says Harry softly. "I'm glad of it, for I never knew what it was
to have a mother."

He seemed to fall off to sleep after that, when, no one noticing them,
those two children came up, and the first I heard of it was little Clive
crying: "Ally Lant--Ally Lant, open eyes, and come and play wis elfant."

I started, and looked up to see one of those little innocents--his face
smeared, and his little hands all dabbled with blood, trying to open
poor Harry Lant's eyes with his tiny fingers.

"Why don't Ally Lant come and play with us?" says the other; and just
then he opened his eyes, and looked at them with a smile, when in a
moment I saw what was happening, for that poor fellow's last act was to
get those two children's hands in his, as if he felt that he should like
to let his last grasp in this world be upon something innocent; and then
there was a deepening of that smile into a stern look, his lips moved,
and all was over; while I was too far off to hear his last words.

But there was one there who did hear them, and she told me