“No, no,” said Peter, “the king can make an offisher, but she can’t make a shentleman. She took the oyster hern ainsel, and gave you the shell.”
“Well,” continued Jackson, “he took the sash, and tied it round my leg, and then took a bayonet off a corpse, and with that twisted it round and round so tight it urt more nor the wound, and then he secured the bayonet so that it wouldn’t slip. There was a furrin trooper’s orse not far off that had lost his rider, and had got his rein hunder his foreleg, so Betty caught him and brought him to where I was a sitting. By the haid of another pull at the canteen, which put new life into me, and by their hassistance, I was got on the saddle, and he and Betty steadied me on the hanimal, and led me off. I no sooner got on the orse than Betty fell to a crying and a scolding again like anything.
“‘What hails you now,’ says I, ‘Betty? You are like your own town of Plymouth—it’s showery weather with you all the year round amost. What’s the matter now?’
“‘Oh, Tom, Tom,’ said she, ‘you will break my eart yet—I know you will.’
“‘Why what have I done?’ says I. ‘I couldn’t help getting that little scratch on the leg.’
“‘Oh, it tante that,’ she said; ‘it’s that orrid stroke of the sun. There’s your poor ead huncovered again. Where is your elmet?’
“‘Oh, bother,’ sais I, ‘ow do I know? Somewhere on the ground, I suppose.’
“Well, back she ran as ard as she could, but M’Clure wouldn’t wait a moment for her and went on, and as she couldn’t find mine, she undid the furriner’s and brought that, and to pacify her I had to put it on and wear it. It was a good day for M’Clure, and I was glad of it, for he was a great scholar and the best friend I ever had. He sold the orse for twenty pounds afterwards.”
“She don’t want to say nothin’ disrespectable,” said Peter, “against her friend, but she was no shentleman for all tat.”
“He is now,” said Tom again, with an air of triumph. “He is an hofficer, and dines at the mess. I don’t suppose he’d be seen with me now, for it’s agen the rules of the service, but he is the best friend I have in the world.”