CHAPTER I: THE MAYO FUSILIERS

“WHAT AM I TO DO with you, Terence? It bothers me entirely; there is not a soul who will take you, and if anyone would do so, you would wear out his patience before a week’s end; there is not a dog in the regiment that does not put his tail between his legs and run for his bare life if he sees you; and as for the colonel, he told me only the other day that he had so many complaints against you, that he was fairly worn out with them.”

“That was only his way, father; the colonel likes a joke as well as any of them.”

“Yes, when it is not played on himself; but you haven’t even the sense to respect persons, and it is well for you that he could not prove that it was you who fastened the sparrow to the plume of feathers on his shako the other day, and no one noticed it till the little baste began to flutter just as he came on to parade, and nigh choked u