respect persons, and it is well for you that he could not prove that it
was you who fastened the sparrow to the plume of feathers on his shako the
other day, and no one noticed it till the little baste began to flutter
just as he came on to parade, and nigh choked us all with trying to hold
in our laughter, while the colonel was nearly suffocated with passion. It
was lucky you were able to prove that you had gone off at daylight
fishing, and that no one had seen you anywhere near his quarters. By my
faith, if he could have proved it was you he would have had you turned out
of the barrack gate, and word given to the sentries that you were not to
be allowed to pass in again."

"I could have got over the wall, father," the boy said, calmly; "but mind,
I never said that it was I who fastened the sparrow in his shako."

"Because I never asked you, Terence; but it does not need the asking. What
I am to do with you I don't know. Your Uncle Tim would not take you if I
were to go down upon my knees to him. You were always in his bad books,
and you finished it when you fired off that blunderbuss in his garden as
he was passing along in the twilight, and yelled out 'Death to the
Protestants!'"

The boy burst into a fit of laughter. "How could I tell that he was going
to fall flat upon the ground and shout a million murders, when I fired
straight into the air?"

"Well, you did for yourself there, Terence. Not that the old man would
ever have taken to you, for he never forgave my marriage with his niece;
still, he might have left you some money some day, seeing that there is no
one nearer to him, and it would have come in mighty useful, for you are
not likely to get much from me. But we are no nearer the point yet. What