and that widow, too; it's kind of her to send me tea and sugar,
and such nice things to eat."

"Yes, mother, it is."

"And your father, to bring your little dear sister, so nice and clean,
to come and see an old wretch like me in such a dirty hole. Ah, Jack!
now I'm getting well again I like the world better than I did."

In a few days old Nanny had again opened her shop, sitting at the door
as usual, and, as the spring was now well advanced, she gradually
recovered her strength. When I gave up my office of nurse she did not,
however, forget to tell me to bring her good bargains, as I had promised
that I would.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A MORNING CONCERT, IN WHICH THE OPPOSITION IS AS GREAT AS BLACK TO
WHITE.

Among my father's associates there was a man of about forty years of
age, Dick Harness by name. He had received a wound in the hip from a
grape-shot, and his leg having in consequence contracted, it occasioned
him to limp very much; but he was as strong and hearty in all other
respects as a man could be. He was a very merry fellow, full of jokes,
and if any one told a story which was at all verging on the marvellous,
he was sure to tell another which would be still more incredible. He
played the fiddle and sang to his own accompaniments, which were very
droll, as he extracted very strange noises from his instrument;
sometimes his bow would be on the wrong side of the bridge, sometimes
down at the keys; besides which, he produced sounds by thumping the
fiddle as well as by touching its strings as a guitar; indeed, he could
imitate in a certain way almost every instrument, and most of the noises
made by animals. He had one fault, for which he used to be occasionally
punished, which was, he was too fond of the bottle; but he was a great
favourite, and therefore screened by the men, and as much as possible
overlooked by the officers. The punishment for a pensioner getting
drunk was, at that time, being made to wear a yellow instead of a blue
coat, which made a man look very conspicuous.

I recollect one day he had the yellow coat on, when a party of ladies
and gentlemen came to see the hospital. Perceiving that he was dressed
so differently from the other pensioners, one of the ladies' curiosity
was excited, and at last she called him to her and said, "Pray, my good
man, why do you wear a yellow coat when the other pensioners have blue
ones?"

"Bless your handsome face, ma'am!" replied Dick, "don't y