And by good luck 'twas done, and we was sent to the new
battalion. So there we stayed to Gloucester nighly four year. Those
was the days when they said that Boney was a-coming over, but he never
come, as you know very well, for he didn't dare.
"And at Gloucester it was that I had a little maid born to me, so sweet
a little maid as ever was seen, with blue eyes and golden hair like
your own little lady's. But there was a terrible lot of sickness among
the men. Whether it was that our other battalion brought it back from
Egypt, I can't tell, but so it was. The men died fast, for all that
the doctors would do was to bleed mun like pigs; and whether it was
that, or what it was, I couldn't say, but the little maid sickened and
died, when she was fifteen months old. Jan was terrible distressed, I
mind, and so was I; but since then I've a-thought often that it was
better so.
"But Jan and the boy kept well and strong, and as the boy growed
bigger, he got mazed with soldiering. Nothing would sarve mun but he
must be a drummer; and one of the drummers took up with mun and taught
mun almost so soon as he was big enough to hold the sticks, and it was
wonderful to see how quick he learned. It was pretty, too, to see his
little hands a-twinkling, for very soon he could beat so well as any of
mun. So he became a bit of a favourite, for he was a sweet pretty boy,
and the officers took notice of mun, and the tailor he made mun a
little coat and breeches and dressed mun out for all the world like a
riglar drummer.
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