XIX
вАЩTis a pity, Trim, said my uncle Toby, resting with his hand upon the corporalвАЩs shoulder, as they both stood surveying their works,вБ†вАФthat we have not a couple of field-pieces to mount in the gorge of that new redoubt;вБ†вЄЇвАЩtwould secure the lines all along there, and make the attack on that side quite complete:вБ†вЄЇвБ†get me a couple cast, Trim.
Your honour shall have them, replied Trim, before tomorrow morning.
It was the joy of TrimвАЩs heart,вБ†вАФnor was his fertile head ever at a loss for expedients in doing it, to supply my uncle Toby in his campaigns, with whatever his fancy called for; had it been his last crown, he would have sat down and hammered it into a paderero, to have prevented a single wish in his Master. The corporal had already,вБ†вАФwhat with cutting off the ends of my uncle TobyвАЩs spoutsвБ†вАФhacking and chiseling up the sides of his leaden gutters,вБ†вАФmelting down his pewter shaving-bason,вБ†вАФand going at last, like Lewis the Fourteenth, on to the top of the church, for spare ends, etc.вБ†вЄЇвБ†he had that very campaign brought no less than eight new battering cannons, besides three demi-culverins, into the field; my uncle TobyвАЩs demand for two more pieces for the redoubt, had set the corporal at work again; and no better resource offering, he had taken the two leaden weights from the nursery window: and as the sash pullies, when the lead was gone, were of no kind of use, he had taken them away also, to make a couple of wheels for one of their carriages.
He had dismantled every sash-window in my uncle TobyвАЩs house long before, in the very same way,вБ†вАФthough not always in the same order; for sometimes the pullies have been wanted, and not the lead,вБ†вАФso then he began with the pullies,вБ†вАФand the pullies being picked out, then the lead became useless,вБ†вАФand so the lead went to pot too.
вЄЇвБ†A great moral might be picked handsomely out of this, but I have not timeвБ†вАФвАЩtis enough to say, wherever the demolition began, вАЩtwas equally fatal to the sash window.