you can be off if you like."

Terence at once went down to the camp of the Mayo Fusiliers. The officers
were all there, their quartermaster having gone into the village to fix
their respective quarters.

"Hooray, Terence, me boy!" O'Grady shouted, as he came up, "we all
congratulate you. Faith, it is a comfort to see that for once merit has
been recognized. I am sure that there is not a man in the regiment but
would have liked to have given you a cheer as you rode along this morning
just before we started. We shall miss you, but as you will be up and down
all day and can look in of an evening, it won't be as if you had been put
on the staff of another brigade. As to Dicky Ryan, he is altogether down
in the mouth, whether it is regret for your loss or whether it is from
jealousy at seeing you capering about on horseback, while he is tramping
along on foot, is more than I know."

"If you were not my superior officer, Captain O'Grady, I should make a
personal onslaught on you," Ryan laughed. "You will have to mind how you
behave now, Terence; the brigadier is an awfully good fellow, but he is
pretty strict in matters of discipline."

"I will take care of meself, Dicky, and now that you will have nobody to
help you out of your scrapes, you will have to mind yourself too."

"I am glad that you have got a lift, Terence," Captain O'Driscol said;
"but it is rather hard on me losing a subaltern just as the campaign is
beginning in earnest."

"Menzies likes doing all the work," Terence said, "so it won't make so