beaten that ye may beat. Pass the kick on.'"

But here he was interrupted by the appearance of three soldiers who
were approaching the watering-place.

"Ye are now," said the Moo Kow, "with the main guard. The first is
Bleareyed, who carries a raven in a cage, which he has stolen from the
wife of a deputy commissioner. He will paint the bird snow white and
sell it as a dove to the same lady. The second is Otherwise, who is
dragging a small garden engine, of which he has despoiled a native
gardener, whom he has felled with a single blow. The third is
Mulledwiney, swinging a cut-glass decanter of sherry which he has just
snatched from the table of his colonel. Mulledwiney and Otherwise will
play the engine upon Bleareyed, who is suffering from heat apoplexy and
djim-djams."

The three soldiers seated themselves in the pool.

"They are going to tell awful war stories now," said the Moo Kow,
"stories that are large and strong! Some people are shocked--others
like 'em."

Then he that was called Mulledwiney told a story. In the middle of it
Miaow got up from the limb of the tree, coughed slightly, and put her
paw delicately over her mouth. "You must excuse me," she said faintly.
"I am taken this way sometimes--and I have left my salts at home.
Thanks! I can get down myself!" The next moment she had disappeared,
but was heard coughing in the distance.

Mulledwiney winked at his companions and continued his story:--

"Wid that we wor in the thick av the foight. Whin I say 'thick' I mane
it, sorr! We wor that jammed together, divil a bit cud we shoot or
cut! At fur-rest, I had lashed two mushkits together wid the baynits
out so, like a hay fork, and getting the haymaker's lift on thim, I
just lifted two Paythians out--one an aych baynit--and passed 'em,
aisy-like, over me head to the rear rank for them to finish. But what
wid the blud gettin' into me ois, I was blinded, and the pressure kept
incraysin' until me arrums was thrussed like a fowl to me sides, and
sorra a bit cud I move but me jaws!"

"And bloomin' well you knew how to use them," said Otherwise.

"Thrue for you--though ye don't mane it!" said Mulledwiney, playfully
tapping Otherwise on the head with a decanter till the cut glass slowly
shivered. "So, begorra! there wor nothing left for me to do but to ATE
thim! Wirra! but it was the crooel worruk."

"Excuse me, my lord," interrupted the gasping voice of Pi Bol as he
began to back from the