And it have been rough with the army over there lately.

'Twas a pity his father persuaded him to go.

But Luke shouldn't have twyted the sergeant o't, since 'a did it for the best.' The circumstances, in brief, were these: The sergeant who had come to this lamentable end, father of the young soldier who had gone with his regiment to the East, had been singularly comfortable in his military experiences, these having ended long before the outbreak of the great war with France.

On his discharge, after duly serving his time, he had returned to his native village, and married, and taken kindly to domestic life.

But the war in which England next involved herself had cost him many frettings that age and infirmity prevented him from being ever again an active unit of the army.