t want to hear no sich thing," retorted the old woman,
querulously, but anxiously, too. "I do know 'ee better nor to think
you'd have any sich nonsensical notions; you as be a widow man, and
have a-buried sich a lovin' wife, what have a-left 'ee the darlingest
little maid to keep. Us do want no step-mothers; us do want all the
love, the wold mother and the little maid."

Dick's face twitched, and his eyes clouded, but before he could
answer, Private Billy Caines, who was not endowed with remarkably
acute perceptions, began his narrative in a loud and merry voice.

"Him and me was knocked over the same day--I shouldn't wonder but what
it was the same shell. I couldn't tell 'ee for sure about that, for I
were hit all to flinders, and for a bit they thought I was done for.
But when I did get a bit better, and did begin to look about, I'm
danged if the first thing I did see weren't poor old Dick's long white
face, lyin' there so solemn, wi' his girt hollow black eyes, a-starin'
and a-starin' straight i' front of en. I did use to watch en, and he
did always look the same--sorrowful and anxious, and one day I did
call out to en, soft like, 'What be thinkin' on, man? The us'al thing,
I s'pose?' He did scraggle his head a bit round on the pillow and
squint back at me. 'What mid that be?' says he. 'Why,' says I, 'the
girl I left behind me!' 'Be that what you be a-thinkin' on?' says he.
'O' course,' says I; 'what else?' 'What else, indeed?' says he, and he
did sigh same as if he had a bellows inside of en."

"Did he actually say he was a-thinkin' about soom maid?" interrupted
Mrs. Baverstock wrathfully.

"Bide a bit," retorted Private Caines, wagging his head portentously;
"I be a-tellin' the tale so quick as I can. Well, I did get tired o'
watchin' en layin' there, starin' and sighin', so I did begin to tell
en about somebody _I_ did think a deal on then, but have a-changed my
mind about now; and he did listen and laugh a bit, but I could see he
were a-thinkin' about his own sweetheart all the time. So says I at
last, 'I d' 'low she be a vitty maid?' 'Who?' says he, scraggling
round again. 'The girl ye left behind ye,' says I. 'Ah, to be sure,'
says he. 'Yes, she be a reg'lar pictur.' 'Well, you mid tell us a bit
about her,' says I; 'I've a-told 'ee all about my maid. Blue eyes, I
s'pose?' Seein' as his own be so black as sloes, I reckoned 'twould
come naitral to en to take up wi' a fair maid. 'Yes,' says he, 'so
blue as the