"I am three and fifty years old," he said, "and I 'listed when I was
twenty. I was in all the wars in India for nineteen years, and never
was hit but once, and that was on the top of my head. Look here," he
took off his hat and pointed to a ridge made by the track of a
bullet, "if I had been an inch taller I shouldn't be here now. And
maybe it would have been all the better. I have been too long at the
fighting to learn another trade now. When I 'listed I was told my
pay would be a shilling a day and everything found. A shilling a day
is seven shillings a week, and I thought I should live like a
fighting cock, plenty to eat and a shilling a day for drink or sport.
But I found out the difference when it was too late. They kept a
strict account against every man; it was full of what they called
deductions, and we had to pay for so many things out of that shilling
that sometimes for months together I hadn't the price of a pint o'
threepenny with a trop o' porter through it."
"What was the biggest battle you ever were in?" enquired Philip.
"Well, I had some close shaves, but the worst was when we took a
stockade from the Burmans. My regiment was the 47th, and one company
of ours, sixty-five, rank and file, and two companies from other
regiments were ordered to attack it. Our officers were all shot down
before we reached the stockade, but we got in, and went at the
Burmans with the bayonet.
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