ore, with his cane shouldered, grinning
among the tombstones in the evening sun. But there was no sign of him,
or indeed of anyone else there. So I returned, just as my uncle, having
made the tea, shut down the lid of his silver tea-pot with a little
smack; and with a kind but absent smile upon me, he took his book, sat
down and crossed one of his thin legs over the other, and waited
pleasantly until the delightful infusion should be ready for our lips,
reading his old volume, and with his disengaged hand gently stroking his
long shin-bone.

In the meantime, I, who thirsted more for that tale of terror which the
old soldier had all but begun, of which in that strangely battered skull
I had only an hour ago seen face to face so grizzly a memento, and of
which in all human probability I never was to hear more, looked out
dejectedly from the window, when, whom should I behold marching up the
street, at slow time, towards the Salmon House, but the identical old
soldier, cocked-hat, copper nose, great red single-breasted coat with
its prodigious wide button-holes, leggings, cane, and all, just under
the village tree.

'Here he is, oh! Uncle Charles, here he comes,' I cried.

'Eh, the soldier, is he?' said my uncle, tripping in the carpet in his
eagerness, and all but breaking the window.

'So it is, indeed; run down, my boy, and beg him to come up.'

But by the time I had reached the street, which you may be sure was not
very long, I found my uncle had got the window up and was himself
inviting the old boy, who having brought his left shoulder forward,
thanked the curate, saluting soldier-fashion, with his hand to his hat,
palm foremost. I've observed, indeed, than those grim old campaigners
who have seen the world, make it a principle to accept anything in the
shape of a treat. If it's bad, why, it costs them nothing; and if good,
so much the better.

So up he marched, and into the room with soldierly self-possession, and
being offered tea, preferred punch, and the ingredients were soon on the
little round table by the fire, which, the evening being sharp, was
pleasant; and the old fellow being seated, he brewed his nectar, to his
heart's content; and as we sipped our tea in pleased attention, he,
after his own fashion, commenced the story, to which I listened with an
interest which I confess has never subsided.

Many years after, as will sometimes happen, a flood of light was
unexpectedly poured over the details of