There is nothing more nasty about snails after all than there is about oysters; and as to frogs they were regarded as great dainties by the Romans, who certainly knew what good eating was." "Sure, I am a Roman myself, your honor--so are most of the men of the regiment--but I never heard tell of sich a thing." "Not that sort of Roman, Denis," Ralph laughed.

"The old Romans--people who lived long before there were any popes--a people who could fight as well as any that ever lived, and who were as fond of good living as they were of fighting." "Well, your honor, there is no accounting for tastes.

There was Bridget Maloney, whom I courted before I entered the regiment.

Well, your honor, if you would believe it, she threw over a dacent boy like myself, and married a little omadoun of a man about five feet high, and with one shoulder higher than the other.

That was why I took to soldiering, your honor.