Alice said she should jolly well think so.

Then he said he had noticed us there for several days, and he had
halted the battery because he thought we might like to look at the
guns.

Alas! there are but too few grown-up people so far- seeing and
thoughtful as this brave and distinguished officer.

We said, 'Oh, yes', and then we got off the wall, and that good and
noble man showed us the string that moves the detonator and the
breech-block (when you take it out and carry it away the gun is in
vain to the enemy, even if he takes it); and he let us look down
the gun to see the rifling, all clean and shiny--and he showed us
the ammunition boxes, but there was nothing in them. He also told
us how the gun was unlimbered (this means separating the gun from
the ammunition carriage), and how quick it could be done--but he
did not make the men do this then, because they were resting.
There were six guns. Each had painted on the carriage, in white
letters, 15 Pr., which the captain told us meant fifteen-pounder.

'I should have thought the gun weighed more than fifteen pounds,'
Dora said. 'It would if it was beef, but I suppose wood and gun
are lighter.'

And the officer explained to her very kindly and patiently that 15
Pr. meant the gun could throw a SHELL weighing fifteen pounds.

When we had told him how jolly it was to see the soldiers go by so