But as he went on these children crowded round me and looked with awe upon my battered body, and read with reverence those quaintly-scratched initials, and as they followed me in imagination from one master to another, and from one peril to the next, ending up with the famous battle before Lucknow, they forgot I was old and ugly, and I gradually appeared to their little eyes one of the greatest treasures which their father's house contained.
"And here he lies in my hand, children," concluded papa; "and if you love him as much as I do you must be very fond of him.

And now, good- night, all of you." THE END..