We might have been saying: 'There is O'Grady gone; he was a beggar
to talk, but he meant well. Faith, the drink bill of the regiment will
fall off.'"
"Well, it might have been so," O'Grady said, in a more contented voice;
"and if I had been killed going up the hill, without even as much as
catching a glimpse of the Frenchies, I would niver have forgiven
them--niver!"
There was a roar of laughter at the bull.
"Phwat is it have I said?" he asked, in surprise.
"Nothing, O'Grady; but it would be an awful thing for the French to know
that after your death you would have gone on hating them for ever."
"Did I say that? But you know my maneing, and as long as you know that,
what does it matter which way I put it? Well, now, I suppose Sir Arthur is
going to take us tramping along again. Ah, it is a weary thing being a
soldier!"
"Why, you were saying yesterday, O'Grady, that your feet were getting all
right," Terence said.
"All right in a manner, Terence. And it is a bad habit that you have got
of picking up your supayrior officer's words and throwing them into his
teeth. You will come to a bad end if you don't break yourself of it; and
the worst of it is, you are corrupting the other lads, and the young
officers are losing all respect for their seniors. I am surprised, Major,
that you and the colonel don't take the matter in hand before the
discipline of the regiment is destroyed entirely.
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