United States or Puerto Rico ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
This information soon spread through the village and country round, and next morning the whole population of Overcombe except two or three very old men and women, a few babies and their nurses, a cripple, and Corporal Tullidge ascended the slope with the crowds from afar, and awaited the events of the day. The miller wore his best coat on this occasion, which meant a good deal.
'But as they are learning to be brave defenders of their home and country, ma'am, as fast as they can master the drill, and have worked for me off and on these many years, I've asked 'em in, and thought you'd excuse it. 'Certainly, Miller Loveday, said the widow. 'And the same of old Burden and Tullidge.
Old age was represented by Simon Burden the pensioner, and the shady side of fifty by Corporal Tullidge, his friend and neighbour, who was hard of hearing, and sat with his hat on over a red cotton handkerchief that was wound several times round his head.
I should like to see the man who sat to Artist Hardy for the portrait of Corporal Tullidge in The Trumpet-Major. This worthy, who was deaf and talked in an uncompromisingly loud voice, had been struck in the head by a piece of shell at Valenciennes in '93. His left arm had been smashed.
Well, Corporal Tullidge, how's your head? he said, going towards the other end of the room, and leaving Anne to herself. The company had again recovered its liveliness, and it was a long time before the bouncing Rufus who had joined them could find heart to tear himself away from their society and good liquors, although he had had quite enough of the latter before he entered.
'Why didn't ye speak to me afore, chiel? said one of these, Corporal Tullidge, the elderly man with the hat, while she was talking to old Simon Burden. 'I met ye in the lane yesterday, he added reproachfully, 'but ye didn't notice me at all.
His reproductions of that talk are often intensely realistic. Nearly every book has its chorus of human grotesques whose mere names are a source of mirth. William Worm, Grandfer Cantle, 'Corp'el' Tullidge, Christopher Coney, John Upjohn, Robert Creedle, Martin Cannister, Haymoss Fry, Robert Lickpan, and Sammy Blore, men so denominated should stand for comic things, and these men do.
So that a descent of one hundred and fifty thousand men might be expected any day as soon as Boney had brought his plans to bear. 'Lord ha' mercy upon us! said William Tremlett. 'The night-time is when they will try it, if they try it at all, said old Tullidge, in the tone of one whose watch at the beacon must, in the nature of things, have given him comprehensive views of the situation.
The young woman was Anne Garland, the sweet heroine of the story; and Anne didn't want to see the silver plate, the thought of which made her almost faint. Nor could she be tempted by being told that one couldn't see such a 'wownd' every day. Then Cripplestraw, earnest to please her, suggested that Tullidge rattle his arm, which Tullidge did, to Anne's great distress.
Among the many thousands of minor Englishmen whose lives were affected by these tremendous designs may be numbered our old acquaintance Corporal Tullidge, who sported the crushed arm, and poor old Simon Burden, the dazed veteran who had fought at Minden. Instead of sitting snugly in the settle of the Old Ship, in the village adjoining Overcombe, they were obliged to keep watch on the hill.
Word Of The Day