“Tis a kind of a little joke what me and Billy have a-got between us about my sweetheart.  There, he can tell ’ee the tale while we’re eatin’.  This ’ere be my mother, Billy.  This be Mr. Billy Caines—­a Darset man same as myself.  Him and me was reg’lar pals out there, wasn’t we, Bill?”

“I d’ ’low we was,” responded Private Caines, after ceremoniously pumping Mrs. Baverstock’s hand up and down.  “We did fight side by side, and we was wounded side by side, and we was a-layin’ side by side for weeks in the field hospital, wasn’t us, Dick?”

“I reckon we had a bit too much o’ that there hospital,” responded the Corporal, drawing forward a chair for his friend. “’Twas there we did have so much talk about my sweetheart.  Ha, ha, ye didn’t know as I’d a-got a sweetheart, did ye, old lady?” he inquired of his mother.  “Billy ’ull tell ’ee about that,” and he winked surreptitiously at his friend.

Mrs. Baverstock was evidently in a flutter.  What between this sudden arrival of six feet of khaki-clad humanity and the innuendoes which had been recently thrown out, touching a subject on which she felt strongly (the possibility of Dick’s marrying again), she actually set the pastry on the table in the place of the beef, and helped the two soldiers to a cake each instead of a piece of bread.

“Why, you be wool-gathering, that you be.  You’ve a-got everything in a reg’lar caddie!” cried her son, as she paused to clack her tongue remorsefully over her mistakes.  “Business first and pleasure arterwards.  Up wi’ the beef!  Now then, Billy, fall to!  A bit better tasted nor bully, bain’t it?”

Billy groaned appreciatively, with his mouth full, and silence ensued, during which Mrs. Baverstock cut up Tilly Ann’s dinner, and presented her with a spoon.

Tilly Ann’s eyes had been fixed unwinkingly upon the new comer since his arrival, and she had now apparently classified him, for, after successfully piloting one or two spoonfuls of beef and potato to her little red mouth, she paused, drummed on the table with the handle of her spoon, and remarked conclusively: 

“Another daddy!”

“Dear, to be sure!  Hark to the child,” said granny, while the two men laughed uproariously.

“The little maid’s sharp, I can tell ’ee,” announced Dick; “she do know the difference between soldier and civilian a’ready.  Never see’d no soldier but I afore, and now, when another do come, says she to herself, ‘This must be another daddy.’  Ho! ho!”

“She’ve a-got more sense nor many a wolder maid,” returned Private Caines gloomily; “she do know what’s what—­I d’ ‘low she wouldn’t ha’ gone a-takin’ up wi’ a (qualified) civilian when you weren’t to the fore.  She be a bonny little maid, too,” he added reflectively, eyeing the chubby pink and white face.  “Yes, you’ve a-got good taste, as you did tell I out yonder.”

“Come, don’t ’ee spoil the tale,” cried the Corporal, laughing; “begin at the right end.  My mother here do want to hear about my sweetheart.”