United States or Bermuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Loser goes first," said Glover, producing a copper. "Heads or tails?" "Heads," guessed Thurstane. "It's a tail. Catch hold, Capm. Slow 'n' easy till you get over." The cord holding firm, Thurstane reached the bowlder, and was presently joined by Glover. "Liftinant, I want me bagonet," cried Sweeny. "Will I go up afther it?" "How the dickens 'd you git down again?" asked Glover.
We was sent wid de seamen to take de island of Martinique; and so we landed and looked bery fierce, and de Frenchmen thought we had come to eat dem; so dey say, no use fighting; and so, after firing a great many shot at us; but doing no harm, dey say when we land, `We give in, we no fight more. So we take de island, and no one hurt except one man scratch anoder's nose wid his bagonet, and make blood come.
"Stick him with yer bagonet, Pelatiah," ordered the sergeant, motioning toward the squire, who, still sitting in the doorway, very effectually blocked the way. Pelatiah, duly obedient, pricked the well-developed calf of the master of Greenwood, bringing that individual to his feet with another howl, which drew sympathetic shrieks from Mrs. Meredith and Janice.
This in a tone that made Ralph tremble. "Your father was a miserable Britisher. I'd fit red-coats, in the war of eighteen-twelve, and lost my leg by one of 'em stickin' his dog-on'd bagonet right through it, that night at Lundy's Lane; but my messmate killed him though which is a satisfaction to think on. And I didn't like your father 'cause he was a Britisher.
"'T is mighty fine fer the ginral ter say in the ginral orders that he wants us if attacked ter rely on the bagonet," spoke up one of the murmurers loud enough to make it evident that he intended the officer to overhear him; "but no troops kin fight on a shred o' salt pork and a mouthful of collards."
After an anxious search they discovered a bowlder lying in the river beneath the shelf, with a flat surface perfectly suited to their purpose. There, too, was a cleft, but a miserably small one. "We can't jam a cord in that," said Glover; "nor the handle of a paddle nuther." "It'll howld me bagonet," suggested Sweeny. "It can be made to hold it," decided Thurstane.
Set's face foret, and say "quick mairch," an' he'll ca his bagonet throu auld Hornie. But lay nae consequences upo' him, for he cudna stan' unner them. Dr. Anderson laughed, but thought none the less, and went home to see how his patient was getting on. Meantime Ericson grew better. A space of hard, clear weather, in which everything sparkled with frost and sunshine, did him good.
"I will go with you, Uncle Job," added Mr. Pennant quietly. "You, Massa Gumboat!" cried the negro. "De sodgers put de bagonet frou your crop like a knife frou a pullet's froat!" "Not if you tell them I am the doctor," added the lieutenant. "De doctor! Be you a doctor, sar?"
So, with many allusions to the time he fit at Lundy's Lane, and some indignant remarks about the pack of thieves that driv him off, and a passing tribute to Miss Martha Hawkins, and sundry other digressions, in which he had to be checked, the old man told how he'd drunk whisky at Welch's store that night, and how Welch's whisky was all-fired mean, and how it allers went straight to his head, and how he had got a leetle too much, and how he had felt kyinder gin aout by the time he got to the blacksmith's shop, and how he had laid down to rest, and how as he s'posed the boys had crated him, and how he thought it war all-fired mean to crate a old soldier what fit the Britishers, and lost his leg by one of the blamed critters a-punchin' his bagonet through it; and how when he woke up it was all-fired cold, and how he rolled off the crate and went on towurds home, and how when he got up to the top of Means's hill he met Pete Jones and Bill Jones, and a slim sort of a young man, a-ridin'; and how he know'd the Joneses by ther hosses, and some more things of that kyind about 'em; but he didn't know the slim young man, tho' he tho't he might tell him ef he seed him agin kase he was dressed up so slick and town-like.
Word Of The Day