With Moore at Corunna | Page 6

You must make them hurry on with his undress clothes,
O'Connor. I should not bother about full-dress till we get back again; it
is not likely to be wanted, and the lad will soon grow out of them. If
there should happen to be full-dress parade in Portugal, Cleary will put
him on as officer of the day, or give him some duties that will keep him
from parade. We may get the route any day, and the sooner he gets his
uniform the better."
Two days later Terence took his place on parade as an officer of the
regiment. He had witnessed such numberless drills that he had picked
up every word of command, knew his proper place in every formation,
and fell into the work as readily as if he had been at it for years. He had
been heartily congratulated by the officers of the regiment.
"I am awfully glad that you are one of us, Terence," Dick Ryan said. "I
don't know what we should have done without you. I expect we shall
have tremendous fun in Portugal."
"I expect we shall, Dick; but we shall have to be careful. We shall be
on active service, you see, and from what they say of him I don't think
Sir Arthur Wellesley is the sort of man to appreciate jokes."
"No, I should say not. Of course, we shall have to draw in a bit. It
would not do to set the bells of Lisbon ringing."
"I should think not, Dick. Still, I dare say we shall have plenty of fun,
and at any rate we are likely, from what they say, to have plenty of
fighting. I don't expect the Portuguese will be much good, and as there
are forty or fifty thousand Frenchmen in Portugal, we shall have all our
work to do, unless they send out a much bigger force than is collecting

at Cork. It is a pity that the 10,000 men who have been sent out to
Sweden on what my father says is a fool's errand are not going with us
instead. We might make a good stand-up fight of it then, whereas I
don't see that with only 6,000 or 7,000 we can do much good against
Junot's 40,000."
"Oh, I dare say we shall get on somehow!" Dick said, carelessly. "Sir
Arthur knows what he is about, and it is our turn to do something now.
The navy has had it all its own way so far, and it is quite fair that we
should do our share. I have a brother in the navy, and the fellows are
getting too cheeky altogether. They seem to think that no one can fight
but themselves. Except in Egypt we have never had a chance at all of
showing we can lick the French just as easily on land as we can at sea."
"I hope we shall, Dick. They have certainly had a great deal more
practice at it than we have."
"Now I think we ought to do something here that they will remember
us for before we start, Terence."
"Well, if you do, I am not with you this time, Dick. I am not going to
begin by getting in the colonel's bad books after he has been kind
enough to nominate me for a commission. I promised him that I would
try and not get into any scrapes, and I am not going to break my word.
When we once get out there I shall be game to join in anything that is
not likely to make a great row, but I have done with it for the present."
"I should like to have one more good bit of fun," Ryan said; "but I
expect you are right, Terence, in what you say about yourself, and it is
no use our thinking to humbug Athlone again if you are not in it with
us; besides, they are getting too sharp. They did not half turn out last
time, and, indeed, we had a narrow escape of being caught. Well, I
shall be very glad when we are off; it is stupid work waiting for the
route, with all leave stopped, and we not even allowed to go out for a
day's fishing."
Three days later the expected order arrived. As the baggage had all
been packed up, that which was to be left behind being handed over to

the care of the barrack-master, and a considerable portion of the heavy
baggage sent on by cart, there was no delay. Officers and men were
alike delighted that the period of waiting had come to an end, and there
was loud cheering in the barrack-yard as soon as the news came. At
daybreak next morning the rest of the baggage started