"
"I never thought anything about it," Stapleton said. "My only idea was
that I must look as if I wasn't afraid, and must set a good example to
the men, and that it was all very unpleasant, and that probably my
turn might come next, and that I would give a good deal for something
like a gallon of beer. As far as I can remember those were my leading
ideas yesterday."
"Well, Denis, what is it?" Ralph asked his servant, who approached
with a long face.
"Have you any dry tinder about you, your honor? I have been trying to
strike a light for the last half-hour till the tinder box is full of
water, and I have knocked all the skin off my knuckles."
"That's bad, Denis; but I don't think you will get a fire anyhow. The
wood must be all too soaked to burn."
"I think it will go, sor, if I can once get it to light. I have pulled
up some pea-sticks from an old woman's garden; and the ould witch came
out and began at me as if I was robbing her of her eldest daughter. It
was lucky I had a shilling about me, or be jabbers she would have
brought down the provost's guard upon me, and then maybe I would have
had my back warmed the least taste in the world more than was
pleasant. I hid the sticks under a wagon to keep them dry, and Mike
Doolan is standing sentry over them. I promised him a stick or two for
his own kindling.
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