Not that the sergeant was ever in a battle bigger than would go into a half- acre paddock, that's true.

Still, his soul ought to hae as good a chance as another man's, all the same, hey ?' Richard replied that he was quite of the same opinion.

'What d'ye say to lifting up a carrel over his grave, as 'tis Christmas, and no hurry to begin down in parish, and 'twouldn't take up ten minutes, and not a soul up here to say us nay, or know anything about it ?' Lot nodded assent.

'The man ought to hae his chances,' he repeated.
'Ye may as well spet upon his grave, for all the good we shall do en by what we lift up, now he's got so far,' said Notton, the clarionet man and professed sceptic of the choir.

'But I'm agreed if the rest be.' They thereupon placed themselves in a semicircle by the newly stirred earth, and roused the dull air with the well-known Number Sixteen of their collection, which Lot gave out as being the one he thought best suited to the occasion and the mood He comes' the pri'-soners to' re-lease', In Sa'-tan's bon'-dage held'.
'Jown it--we've never played to a dead man afore,' said Ezra Cattstock, when, having concluded the last verse, they stood reflecting for a breath or two.