I like to hear _Trim’s_ stories about the captain, said _Susannah_. --He is a kindly-hearted gentleman, said _Obadiah_, as ever lived. --Aye, and as brave a one too, said the corporal, as ever stept before a platoon. --There never was a better officer in the king’s army, --or a better man in God’s world; for he would march up to the mouth of a cannon, though he saw the lighted match at the very touch-hole, --and yet, for all that, he has a heart as soft as a child for other people. ----He would not hurt a chicken. ----I would sooner, quoth _Jonathan_, drive such a gentleman for seven pounds a year--than some for eight. --Thank thee, _Jonathan!_ for thy twenty shillings, --as much, _Jonathan_, said the corporal, shaking him by the hand, as if thou hadst put the money into my own pocket. ----I would serve him to the day of my death out of love. He is a friend and a brother to me, --and could I be sure my poor brother _Tom_ was dead, --continued the corporal, taking out his handkerchief, --was I worth ten thousand pounds, I would leave every shilling of it to the captain. ----_Trim_ could not refrain from tears at this testamentary proof he gave of his affection to his master. ----The whole kitchen was affected. --Do tell us the story of the poor lieutenant, said _Susannah_. ----With all my heart, answered the corporal. _Susannah_, the cook, _Jonathan_, _Obadiah_, and corporal _Trim_, formed a circle about the fire; and as soon as the scullion had shut the kitchen door, --the corporal begun. CHAPTER XI I am a _Turk_ if I had not as much forgot my mother, as if Nature had plaistered me up, and set me down naked upon the banks of the river _Nile_, without one. ----Your most obedient servant, Madam --I’ve cost you a great deal of trouble, --I wish it may answer; --but you have left a crack in my back, --and here’s a great piece fallen off here before, --and what must I do with this foot? ----I shall never reach _England_ with it. For my own part, I never wonder at any thing; --and so often has my judgment deceived me in my life, that I always suspect it, right or wrong, --at least I am seldom hot upon cold subjects. For all this, I reverence truth as much as any body; and when it has slipped us, if a man will but take me by the hand, and go quietly and search for it, as for a thing we have both lost, and can neither of us do well without, --I’ll go to the world’s end with him: ----But I hate disputes, --and therefore (bating religious points, or such as touch society) I would almost subscribe to any thing which does not choak me in the first passage, rather than be drawn into one. ----But I cannot bear suffocation, ----and bad smells worst of all. ----For which reasons, I resolved from the beginning, That if ever the army of martyrs was to be augmented, --or a new one raised, --I would have no hand in it, one way or t’other. CHAPTER XII ----But to return to my mother.