and again and
blowing clouds from his pipe as if to assist his ruminations, the
strange history of Trooper Jones, almost word for word as I have set it
down. He began:--

"It was in May that we got orders to embark.... I can remember turning
out at four in the mornin' to march to the dockyard, and 'ow the green
lanes was all a-sproutin' and a-shinin', and 'ow the sky was that pink
and streaky, for all the world like a prime rasher. But that's neither
'ere nor there.... We 'ad been billeted in the villages nigh Portsmouth
for several days, and my comrade, James Jenkins, and I 'ad been
quartered at an inn kept by Jones' father and 'is sister--a strappin'
girl, and as like her brother as one bullet's like another. They was
twins, them two--with top-knots the colour o' carrots, mouths as wide as
oyster-shells, allus grinnin', and a power of freckles that made their
faces as yeller as speckled eggs. But Jenny Jones was a stunner, she
was; she served at the bar, and gave the boys as good as they gave--'ot
sauce for the cheeky and a clout o' the 'ead if need be when mi lady's
blood was up. Woman-like, she was that contrary, wi' a tongue as sharp
as a razor for some o' us, and all butter and honey and eyes like a
sucking-calf whenever Jenkins so much as showed 'is nose. And 'e, 'e was
that sweet on 'er as though she'd been a Wenus cast in sugar."

The old fellow blew a mighty whiff from his pipe, a whiff that was akin
to a sigh, and for a few moments he became apparently fogged by the
retrospective haze that surrounded him. He seemed disinclined to relate
more, but as I remained silent he presently resumed:--

"I won't tell you of all the 'arrowin' sights of that there mornin', the
women--mothers and wives and sweethearts--a-snivellin' and a-sobbin',
the men lookin' all awry, as though they'd swallered a chemist shop and
couldn't get the taste out o' their mouths. All this wi' shoutin' of
orders, and noise of the 'orses bein' slung up the ship's side and let
down the main 'atchway into the 'old, and the playin' of the band, and
the cheerin' of the crowd in the dockyard, and the crews in the 'arbour,
and the youngsters on the _Victory_--old fellers they must be
now--a-roarin' fit to split 'emselves from the yards and riggin' so long
as we 'ad ears to 'ear.

"I, bein' som'at of a bachelor by instink, 'ad no gal to wish me
God-speed; but Jenkins, poor chap, was in the same boat. Jenny Jones 'ad
not put 'erself about to see 'im