"Hoolan swore by all
the saints that he had not seen who it was. Never mind, me boy, I will be
even wid ye yet; the O'Grady is not to be waked in that fashion; mind I
owe you one, though I am not saying that I should have been on parade in
time if you had not done it; I only just saved my bacon."
"And hardly that," Terence laughed, "for the adjutant was down upon you
pretty sharply; your coatee was all buttoned up wrong; your hair had not
been brushed, and stuck up all ways below your shako; your sword-belt was
all awry, and you looked worse than you did when I brought you home."
"Well, it is a poor heart that never rejoices, Terence. We must make a
night of it, boys; if the tents are to be struck before daylight it will
be mighty little use your turning in."
"You won't catch me sitting up all night," Terence said, "with perhaps a
twenty-mile march in the morning, and maybe a fight at the end of it. If
it is to Leirya we are going it will be nearer thirty miles than twenty,
and even you, seasoned vessel as you are, will find it a long walk after
being up all night, and having had pretty hard work to-day."
"I cannot hold wid the general there," O'Grady said, gravely; "he has been
kapeing us all at it from daybreak till night, ivery day since we landed,
and marching the men's feet off. It is all very well to march when we have
got to march, but to keep us tramping fifteen or twenty miles a day when
there is no occasion for it is out of all reason.
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