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"It's goin' to cost him five hundred dollars to patch up the old boiler an' keep the Maggie runnin' until he can ship a new boiler. The ol' fool don't know a thing about the job himself an' there's four men down there, without a foreman, soldierin' on him an' soakin' him a dollar an' a half an hour overtime.
As he challenged, a dozen others sprang up from about the flame and, guns in hand, came toward us on a run. "We uns are doggoned tired o' soldierin', an' a gittin' nuthin' fer it," I said in the slow Southern drawl, "an' wanter jine yer gang, pervidin' thar's any show fer it." "How many are ye?" asked one of the newcomers, striding forward between us and the sentry.
Supper had been eaten, and the tired soldiers were gathered around the campfires that gleamed far and near through the darkness. "Si," said Shorty to his chum as they sat on a log beside the dying embers, "how d'ye like soldierin', as fur as ye've got?" "It's purty hard business," said Si, reflectively, "an' I s'pose we haint seen the worst on it yet, either, from what I've hearn tell.
I've heard that man talkin' to his belt-plate an' his side-arms while he was soldierin' thim, all to prevint himself from thinkin', an' ivry time he got up afther he had been settin' down or wint on from the halt, he'd start wid that kick an' traverse that I tould you of his legs sprawlin' all ways to wanst. He wud niver go see the docthor, tho' I tould him to be wise.
Then he called, in his usual quick, sharp, chattering way, "Liftinant, is this soldierin'?" "Yes, my lad," replied Thurstane with a sad, weary smile, thinking meantime of hardships past, "this is soldiering." "Thin I'll do me dooty if I rot jest here," declared the simple hero.
"And there's nothin' left to shoot, and no more soldierin', so there's an end of mine," said Lord John. "And there are no students, so there's an end of mine," cried Summerlee. "But I have my husband and my house, so I can thank heaven that there is no end of mine," said the lady.
And they say Leander wrote his dad that he thought he was goin' to like soldierin' fust-rate, and Mrs. Sarah Mary Babbitt she told Melissa Busteed that her husband's language when he read that was somethin' sinful. She said she never was more thankful that they had lightnin' rods on the roof, 'cause such talk as that was enough to fetch down fire from heaven."
'I'm an ould fool, said Mulvaney, reflectively,'dhrag-gin' you two out here bekaze I was undher the Black Dog sulkin' like a child. Me that was soldierin' when Mullins, an' be damned to him, was shquealin' on a counterpin for five shillin' a week an' that not paid! Bhoys, I've took you five miles out av natural pevarsity. Phew!
"I'm an ould fool," said Mulvaney, reflectively, "dhraggin' you two out here bekaze I was undher the Black Dog sulkin' like a child. Me that was soldierin' when Mullins, an' be damned to him, was shquealin' on a counterpin for five shillin' a week an' that not paid! Bhoys, I've took you five miles out av natural pervarsity. Phew!"
"You bet your life I do!" was the answer. "Ain't I got a boy in camp soldierin'?" "Well, I got two there myself," said the policeman; "but that ain't the question now. I see you've got a kind of a little bruised place there on your head. Now then, as a good Amurican tryin' to do your duty to your country at all times, I want you to tell me how you come by that there bruise.
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