The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 32: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 29 from that day forthwith Rafferty installed himself as a sort of follower and confidential atteudant to Morton. We forgot to add, when talking of his wounds that he lost an eye, and that circumstance invalided hina, so that he got his discharge and a nsion, and might have gone back, had he wished it, to the Emerald Isle; but when Morton spoke to him on that subject after they both landed in England, he said— “No, sir, ll stay by you, sir, now. You've sold out now, sir, and I’ve had my eye poked out, sir, which has turned me out; so, by your lave, sir, Pll stay by you, if you can make me any way useful.” ‘*1 do not want to make you useful, Rafferty. If you like to reside at my estate in England, you shall be welcome.” ‘¢ An estate, sir ?” ‘‘'Yes, Rafferty, in Cumberland.” ‘*Oh, then, sir, I shall find abundant thingstodo. I'll make myself generally useful, like a maid-of-all-work, sir. Ill wring the pigs necks and scald the poultry, sir, dig up praties, and kiss the maids.” ‘We can dispense with the latter accomplishment, Rafferty.’ “Very good, sir, I don’t want to interfere with you. sir, in any little matter— very far from it. sir, I assure you, always.” With this understanding Rafferty Brolickbones went with Captain Morton, as he was frequently called—for, although he had left the army, he was gazetted a captain before he did so— to Cumberland, and never was any human being more aston- ished and delighted than was Rafferty with Moncton Friars. And although having all the appearance of an idler about the house and grounds, Morton soon found him of inestimable value from the fact of his being so thoroughly trustworthy and confi- dential—he was here, and there, and everywhere, and the great- est torment the world could have produced to any one who attempted any peculations at the farm, or who avoided. or attempted to avoid, doing his duty. And yet he was a general favorite, and at any merry-making of the farm laborers and servants, Rafferty was in immense request, and the life and soul of the party—he could dance, sing, shout, jest, drink, and fight; in truth, Rafferty’s accomplishments were of a very numerous nature, and he soon became as much at home at Moncton Friars as the most ancient of its inmates, and as much a part of the place as one of the wings of the building itself. His attach- ment to the whole of the family was immense, not that that tamily was a very large one, for, until Henry Morton married. which he did not do until he had been nearly five years settled on his estate, it merely consisted of himself and Charles, and little Mabel, who certamly made the house look much more cheerful and inhabited than it would have looked had she not been there to make a little bustle in it. Morton had liberally remunerated the sergeant’s wife, who, during his detention at the hospital in Brussels, had taken charge of the infant, and he had agreed with her that she should bring it to him in Cumberland, which she did, and after experi- vacing the munificence of his recompense to her, she left thg comicbooks. com