On the eve of the battle I could not but feel that in a few hours I might be ownerless, and in a dead man's pocket; and, as I looked back upon my strangely eventful life, I sighed, and half hoped, if he were slain, they would in mercy bury me with him, and so end my cares once and for all.

Little I knew! It was scarcely ten o'clock when Paddy was startled by approaching footsteps.

They belonged to an officer of our force who was returning at this hour from an outpost.

Paddy eyed him suspiciously, and even when he gave the word looked disappointed at not having the privilege of using his bayonet upon him.

Just as he was going on his way, the officer turned and said, in a voice which startled me,-- "Is it ten yet, my man ?" Why did the voice startle me?
I could not see the speaker's face, but as he spoke I fancied myself back in the Randlebury schoolroom, and my memory saw a bright-eyed boy I had known once whom I could almost have believed to be the speaker of these few words.