. It's only that I want to know."

"Very well, then, Punch; I will cut it short."

"No, you don't, so come now! You promised to tell me all about it, so
play fair."

"Very well, then, you must listen patiently."

"That's what I'm a-doing of, only you will keep talking in riddles like
about your executioners and trustees. I want you to tell me just in
plain English."

"Very well, then, Punch. I was at a military school, and I didn't want
to be fetched away."

"Oh, I see," cried the boy. "You mean one of them big schools where
they makes young officers?"

"Yes."

"Like Woolwich and Addiscombe?"

"Yes."

"You were going to be a soldier, then--I mean, an officer?"

"An officer is a soldier, Punch."

"Of course he is. Oh, well, I don't wonder you didn't want to be
fetched away. Learning to be an officer, eh? That's fine. Didn't your
uncle want you to be a soldier, then?"

"No. He wanted me to go as a private pupil with a lawyer."

"What, and get to be a lawyer?" cried the boy excitedly. "Oh, I say,
you weren't going to stand that?"

"No, Punch. Perhaps I should have obeyed him, only I knew that it had
always been my father's wish that I should go into the army, and he had
left the money for my education and to buy a commission when I left the
military school."

"Here, I know," cried the boy excitedly; "you needn't tell me no more.
I heard a story once about a wicked uncle. I know--your one bought the
commission and kept it for himself."

"No, Punch; that wouldn't work out right. When I begged him to let me
stay at the military school he mocked at me, and laughed, and said that
my poor father must have been mad to think of throwing away money like
that; and over and over again he insisted that I should go on with my
studies of the law, and give up all notion of wearing a red coat, for he
could see that that was all I thought about."

"Well?" said the boy.

"Well, Punch?"

"And then you punched his head, and ran away from home."

"No, I did not."

"Then you ought to have done. I would if anybody said my poor father
was mad; and, besides, your uncle must have been a bad un to want to
make you a lawyer. I suppose he was a lawyer too."

"Yes."

"There, if I didn't think so! But he must have been a bad un. Said you
wanted to be a soldier so as to wear the uniform? Well, if you did want
to, that's only nat'ral. A soldier's always proud of his uniform. I
heard our colonel say th