.

"Hear now," said he. "Ye know what I am now. I know what I mint to be
at the beginnin' av my service. I've tould you time an' again, an'
what I have not, Dinah Shadd has. An' what am I? Oh, Mary Mother av
Hiven! an ould dhrunken, untrustable baste av a privit that has seen
the regiment change out from colonel to drummer-boy, not wanst or
twict, but scores av times. Ay, scores! An' me not so near gettin'
promotion as in the furst. An' me livin' on an' kapin' clear o' clink
not by my own good conduck, but the kindness av some orf'cer-bhoy young
enough to be son to me! Do I not know ut? Can I not tell whin I'm
passed over at p'rade, tho' I'm rockin' full av liquor an' ready to
fall all in wan piece, such as even a suckin' child might see, bekase,
'Oh, 'tis only ould Mulvaney!' An' whin I'm let off in the
ord'ly-room, through some thrick av the tongue an' a ready answer an'
the ould man's mercy, is ut smilin' I feel whin I fall away an' go back
to Dinah Shadd, thryin' to carry ut all off as a joke? Not I. 'Tis
hell to me--dumb hell through ut all; an' next time whin the fit comes
I will be as bad again. Good cause the reg'ment has to know me for the
best soldier in ut. Better cause have I to know mesilf for the worst
man. I'm only fit to tache the new drafts what I'll never learn
myself; an' I am sure as tho' I heard ut, that the minut wan av these
pink-eyed recruities gets away from my 'Mind ye now,' an' 'Listen to
this, Jim, bhoy,' sure I am that the sergint houlds me up to him for a
warnin'. So I tache, as they say at musketry instruction, by direct
an' ricochet fire. Lord be good to me! for I have stud some trouble."

"Lie down and go to sleep," said I, not being able to comfort or
advise. "You're the best man in the regiment, and, next to Ortheris,
the biggest fool. Lie down, and wait till we're attacked. What force
will they turn out? Guns, think you?"

"Thry that wid your lorrds an' ladies, twistin' an' turnin' the talk,
tho' you mint ut well. Ye cud say nothin' to help me, an' yet ye never
knew what cause I had to be what I am."

"Begin at the beginning and go on to the end," I said, royally. "But
rake up the fire a bit first." I passed Ortheris' bayonet for a poker.

"That shows how little you know what to do," said Mulvaney, putting it
aside. "Fire takes all the heart out av the steel, an' the next time,
maybe, that our little man is fightin' for his life his bradawl'll
break, an'