o flustered and confused, thinking that half of us would have been
shot dead, that--will ye believe it?--I never yet had mind to pull the
tricker. Howsomever, I minded aye with the rest to ram down a fresh
cartridge at the word of command; and something told me I would repent
not doing like the rest (for I had half a kind of notion that my piece
never went off); so, when the firing was over, the sergeant of the
company ordered all that had loaded pieces to come to the front. I
swithered a little, not being very sure like what to do; but some five or
six stept out; and our corporal, on looking at my piece, ordered me with
the rest to the front. It was just by all the world like an execution;
we six, in the face of the regiment, in a little line, going through our
manoeuvres at the word of command; and I could hardly stand upon my feet,
with a queer feeling of fear and trembling, till at length the terrible
moment came. I looked straight forward--for I durst not jee my head
about, and turned to the hills and green trees, as if I was never to see
nature more.

Our pieces were cocked; and at the word--Fire!--off they went. It was an
act of desperation to draw the tricker, and I had hardly well shut my
blinkers, when I got such a thump in the shoulder, as knocked me
backwards head-over-heels on the grass. Before I came to my senses, I
could have sworn I was in another world; but, when I opened my eyes,
there were the men at ease, holding their sides, laughing like to spleet
them; and my gun lying on the ground two or three ell before me.

When I found myself not killed outright, I began to rise up. As I was
rubbing my breek-knees, I saw one of the men going forward to lift up the
fatal piece; and my care for the safety of others overcame the sense of
my own peril,--"Let alane--let alane!" cried I to him, "and take care of
yoursell, for it has to gang off five times yet."

The laughing was now terrible; but being little of a soldier, I thought,
in my innocence, that we should hear as many reports as I had crammed
cartridges down her muzzle. This was a sore joke against me for a length
of time; but I tholed it patiently, considering cannily within myself,
that knowledge is only to be bought by experience, and that, if we can
credit the old song, even Johnny Cope himself did not learn the art of
war in a single morning.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN--MANSIE IN SEARCH OF A CURE FOR CHINCOUGH

Some folks having been bred