Dear me, what impatient creatures boys are!" "No, indeed I am not impatient," Rupert said.

"You have all made me so comfortable and happy, that I should indeed be ungrateful were I to be impatient.

I only want to be about again that I may spare you some of the trouble which you bestow upon me." "Yes, that is all very well and very pretty," Maria said, laughing; "but I know that you are at heart longing to be off to join your regiment, and take part in all their marching and fighting.

Do you know, an officer who came here with you after that terrible fight near Antwerp, told me that you covered yourself with glory there ?" "I covered myself with mud," Rupert laughed.

"Next day, when I had dried a little, I felt as if I had been dipped in dough and then baked.