Any soldiers coming back from Finland?

(She sets milk, &c. on a table—Charles throws himself into a chair, and flings his knapsack behind her.)

Charles. —'Tis a choice thing to rest oneself;—I say, mistress, you must know I, and some more of us peasants, have come a many, many leagues, since break of day.

Cath. Indeed, you may well be tired— and where do you come from ?—Did you meet, on your road, any soldiers coming back from Finland?

Charles (eats and speaks) Not the soldiers themselves, I can't say as I did; but we are them that are bringing home the knapsacks of the poor fellows, that have lost their lives in the wars in Finland.

Catherine, (during this speech of Charles's, leans on the back of a chair— aside) Now I shall know my fate.

Maria Edgeworth: Moral tales for young people