IV 



DEDICATION. 



cornet who had just joined the "Greys," appeared 

 one morning and caught me in the midst of my 

 thirteenth round with "Slenderman," old Miller's 

 fighting butcher boy, the terror of the village 

 lads, with about a hundred young rascals around 

 me shouting out " Go in, young cap'n, and win ;" 

 how you came up as I was sitting gasping on 

 " Dauby Todman's" knee, having my bleeding 

 nose sponged by " Nipper Skeat," the washer- 

 woman's quondam son, and whispered in my ear, 

 " This is too bad of you ; if you don't lick him 

 in two rounds more I'll give you the best 

 thrashing you ever had in your life, you young 

 blackguard ;" how the cousin advised me " not 

 to rush, but to wait for him, hit out straight 

 with my left, and polish him off in two rounds ;" 

 how I did hit out and settled him in one. 



All these, my boyhood memories, can never 

 be forgotten : the day I made over my pony, 

 single gun, and spaniel to my brother, and took 

 to a double barrel ; how I mounted the pink 

 and tops, played in the county eleven, was a 

 dab at pool and billiards, could run my hundred 

 yards in ten seconds, do my mile under five 

 minutes, and never, never can I forget how when 



