"I'm very sorry."
"Well, none of my family have ever come so low as that before, and the mornin' after he'd enlisted I told my sister Betty, who comed over to see me about it. I said to 'er, 'Jim's goin' for a sojer,' and she says to me, 'God help us, Mary!' she said,'to think that one of our family should sink so low as that.'"
"Yes," I said. "And what then?"
"Well, sur, he went away, and a week agone he didn't get on very well with one of the officers."
"No," I said, "that is a pity. Didn't the officer behave nicely?"
"No, 'e didn', that is, what I call nicely. He spoke to my son 'bout what I call nothin' 't 'oal."
"Well, what then?"
"Well, Jim wad'n pleased, so he gived a fortnight's notice to leave."
"What! to leave the Army?" I asked.
"Yes. You see, down 'ere wi' we, when a man d'want to leave 'is job, 'ee d'give a week's notice; but Jim thought he would be generous, so 'e gived a fortnight's notice. He went to the officer, and he said, 'I d'want to give a fortnight's notice to leave.'"