Sol. “Och! and to be sure we do now.”
Ser. “Well, boys, yees know what I’me come about.”
Sol. “Sure we do, sergeant.”
Ser. “Well, boys, are yees all within?”
Sol. “Within, is it! to be sure we are; why, where else would we be?”
Ser. “That’s right, boys! but boys, take care, are yees all in bed?”
Sol. “In bed! sure we are, and all asleep too!!”
Ser. “Och! that’s right, honies, it’s myself that’s proud to find yees grown so regular!”
And having thus performed his duty, he wished them good-night. But poor Bob Hardyman was one of those sort of fellows that could say a thing (and make you laugh at it too, although at your own expense) that if another person attempted, he would get his teeth knocked down his throat; he verified a saying in his own county (Galway), that one man in that country might steal a horse with impunity, when another darn’t look over the hedge where he was grazing.
At Aldea-de-Ponte, the headquarters of our division, all was quiet; and although our allowance of provisions was scanty, and our supply of money scarcely sufficient to procure us salt and rice for our soup, the division, nevertheless, was in high order; we had a good deal of drill, and regular examinations of the men’s kits—a very necessary precaution with all regiments, and with my corps as well as another. At an inspection of this kind by General Mackinnon he found fault—and deservedly so, I must confess—with the scanty manner in which some of the men of my company were supplied. The General was too much the gentleman to row, or call names, but it was clear from his manner that he was far from satisfied with the wardrobe displayed by these fellows; indeed, if he was, it would have been easy to please him! At last coming to a “boy” of the name of Darby Rooney, whose knapsack was what a Frenchman would term vide, or, to speak more intelligibly, one that contained nothing whatever but his watch-coat, a piece of pipe-clay and button-brush! he seemed thunderstruck, as well he might, for I believe “he ne’er had looked upon its like before”!