The Corporal went to the bed, and seized the Sergeant's proffered hand.
"That sang will do me mair guid than a' their medicine. The guidwife will gie ye half-a-croon for puir Sandie Tamson."
Then asking Katie to leave him alone for a few moments with the Corporal, the Sergeant said, retaining his hand--
"I'm no dangerously ill, my auld friend; but I'm no' weel--I'm no' weel! There's a weight on my mind, and an oppression aboot my heart that hauds me doun extraordinar'."
"Dinna gie in, Adam--dinna gie in, wi' the help o' Him that has brocht ye thro' mony a waur fecht," replied the Corporal as he sat down beside him. "D'ye mind the time when ye followed Cainsh up the ladder at Badajoz? and d'ye mind when that glorious fallow Loyd was kill't at Nivelle! Noo----"
"Ah, Dick! thae days, man, are a' by! I'm no' what I was," said the Sergeant. "I'm a puir crippled, wounded veteran, no' fit for ony mair service--no' even as an elder," he added, with a bitter smile.
"Dinna fash yer thoomb, Adam, aboot that business," said Dick. "Ye deserved to hae been drummed oot o' the regiment--I mean the kirk--no' your kirk nor mine, but the kirk o' a' honest and sensible folk, gif ye had swithered aboot that bird. I hae had a crack wi' the cratur, and it's jist extraordinar' sensible like--sae crouse and canty, it wad be like murder tae thraw a neck like that! In fac', a bird is mair than a bird, I consider, when it can speak and sing yon way."
"Thank ye, Corporal," said Adam.
"It's some glamour has come ower the minister," said Dick, "just like what cam' ower oor Colonel, when he made us charge twa thousand at Busaco, and had, in coorse, tae fa' back on his supports in disgrace--no' jist in disgrace, for we never cam' tae that, nor never wull, I hope--but in confusion!"
"God's wull be done, auld comrade!" replied Adam; "but it's His wull, I think, that I maun fa' on the field, and if so, I'm no' feared--na, na! Like a guid sodger, I wad like tae endure hardness."