“I thought, afther a while, he wud kill the man, so I sez:—‘Stop, sorr, or you’ll murdher him!’ That dhrew all his fire on me, an’ he cursed me into Blazes, an’ out again. I stud to attenshin an’ saluted:—‘Sorr,’ sez I, ‘av ivry man in this wurruld had his rights, I’m thinkin’ that more than wan wud be beaten to a jelly for this night’s work—that niver came off at all, sorr, as you see?’ ‘Now,’ thinks I to myself, ‘Terence Mulvaney, you’ve cut your own throat, for he’ll sthrike, an’ you’ll knock him down for the good av his sowl an’ your own iverlastin’ dishgrace!’
“But the Capt’n never said a single wurrd. He choked where he stud, an’ thin he went into his thrap widout sayin’ good-night, an’ I wint back to barricks.”
“And then?” said Ortheris and I together.
“That was all,” said Mulvaney, “niver another word did I hear av the whole thing. All I know was that there was no e-vasion, an’ that was fwhat I wanted. Now, I put ut to you, sorr, Is ten days’ C.B. a fit an’ a proper tratement for a man who has behaved as me?”
“Well, any’ow,” said Ortheris, “tweren’t this ’ere Colonel’s daughter, an’ you was blazin’ copped when you tried to wash in the Fort Ditch.”
“That,” said Mulvaney, finishing the champagne, “is a shuparfluous an’ impert’nint observation.”
THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT
Jain ’Ardin’ was a Sarjint’s wife,
A Sarjint’s wife wus she,
She married of ’im in Orldershort
An’ comed across the sea.
(Chorus)
’Ave you never ’eard tell o’ Jain ’Ardin’?
Jain ’Ardin’?
Jain ’Ardin’?
’Ave you never ’eard tell o’ Jain ’Ardin’?
The pride o’ the Companee?
—Old Barrack Room Ballad.
“A gentleman who doesn’t know the Circasian Circle ought not to stand up for it—puttin’ everybody out.” That was what Miss McKenna said, and the Sergeant who was my vis-à-vis looked the same thing. I was afraid of Miss McKenna. She was six feet high, all yellow freckles and red hair, and was simply clad in white satin shoes, a pink muslin dress, an apple-green stuff sash, and black silk gloves, with yellow roses in her hair. Wherefore I fled from Miss McKenna and sought my friend Private Mulvaney, who was at the cant—refreshment-table.