I picked up some few pieces
myself, thinking it might buy something for the boy, but there was one
woman that loaded herself like a bee with dollars, and said she would
be a lady when she got home.
"After that, she and I was a good bit together, she carrying her
dollars and I carrying the boy; but the way grew worse and worse, and
but for the boy I think that I should have gived out myself as so many
did. Once I remember I saw a sojer and his wife a-lying down by the
wayside; they couldn't go no farther and had lain down to die together;
and I wished that it had been Jan and me; but I had the boy on my back
and I went on. Well, I won't tell you what terrible sights we saw on
the road; but I'll tell 'ee this, that I have seen grown men a-sobbing
like children for pain and cold and hunger. It was enough to turn the
head of a grown man, let alone a child. And so it was that after a
time the boy stopped crying and complaining and went quite quiet. I
couldn't think what was come to mun, that he was always a-staring and
never speaking nor taking no notice; but I reckoned that if I could
carry mun on to the end, he would recover hisself. And I did carry mun
on to the end to--what was the name of the place again?--something like
currants it was."
"Corunna?" said Colonel George.
"Ay, that was it, Corinner--but when we got there, there wasn't no
ships, and General Moore had to fight the French and bate mun before he
could sail home.
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