"Yes, yes, those who hide can find; to school you go, or I'll not stay in the house." Ben took the tea-tray out of the room. He had been well drilled in and out of barracks. "I'll go down in the kitchen to father," cried I, for I was tired of sitting still. "No, you won't, sir," said my mother, "you naughty boy; the kitchen is not the place for you, and if ever I hear of you smoking a pipe again--" "Captain Bridgeman smokes," replied I. "Yes, sir, he smokes cigars; but a child like you must not smoke a pipe." "And now come here, sir," said my granny, who had the lid of her snuff-box off, and held it open in her hand; "what have you been doing with my snuff?" "Why, granny, have I had your snuff-box the whole day?" "How should I know?--a boy like you, with every finger a fish-hook; I do believe you have; I only wish I could find you out. I had fresh snuff this morning." "Perhaps they made a mistake at the shop, mother," said aunt Milly; "they are very careless." "Well, I can't tell: I must have some more; I can't take this." "Throw it in the fire, granny," said I; "and I'll run with the box and get it full again." "Well, I suppose it's the best thing I can do," replied the old woman, who went to the grate, and leaning over, poured the snuff out on the live coals. The result was a loud explosion and a volume of smoke, which burst out of the grate into her face--the dinner and lappets singed, her spectacles lifted from her nose, and her face as black as a sweep's. The old woman screamed, and threw herself back; in so doing, she fell over the chair upon which she had been sitting, and, somehow or another, tripped me up, and lay with all her weight upon me. I had been just attempting to make my escape during the confusion--for my mother and Milly were equally frightened--when I found myself completely smothered by the weight of my now almost senseless granny, and, as I have before mentioned, she was a very corpulent woman. Had I been in any other position I should not have suffered so much; but I had unfortunately fallen flat on my back, and was now lying with my face upwards, pressed upon by the broadest part of the old woman's body; my nose was flattened, and my breath completely stopped. How long my granny might have remained there groaning I cannot tell; probably, as I was somewhat a spoiled child before this, it might have ended in her completely finishing me; but she was roused up from her state of half syncope by a vigorous attack from my teeth, which, in the agony of suffocation, I used with preternatural force of jaw from one so young. I bit right through everything she had on, and as my senses were fast departing, my teeth actually met with my convulsive efforts. My granny, roused by the extreme pain, rolled over on her side, and then it was that my mother and aunt, who supposed that I had made my escape from the room, discovered me lifeless, and black in the face. They ran to me,