I found her father was an honest fellow enough , a fiddler in some theatre ; that he 'd taken good care of Mary till he died , leaving precious little but advice for her to live on . She 'd tried to get work , failed , spent all she had , got sick , and was going to the bad , as the poor souls can hardly help doing with so many ready to give them a shove . It 's no use trying to make a bad job better ; so the long and short of it was , I thought she loved me ; God knows I loved her ! and I married her before the year was out . '' `` Show us her picture ; I know you 've got one ; all the fellows have , though half of 'em wo n't own up . '' `` I 've only got part of one . I once saved my little girl , and her picture once saved me . '' From an inner pocket Thorn produced a woman 's housewife , carefully untied it , though all its implements were missing but a little thimble , and from one of its compartments took a flattened bullet and the remnants of a picture . `` I gave her that the first Christmas after I found her . She was n't as tidy about her clothes as I liked to see , and I thought if I gave her a handy thing like this , she 'd be willing to sew . But she only made one shirt for me , and then got tired , so I keep it like an old fool , as I am . Yes , that 's the bit of lead that would have done for me , if Mary 's likeness had n't been just where it was . '' `` You 'll like to show her this when you go home , wo n't you ? '' said Dick , as he took up the bullet , while Phil examined the marred picture , and Thorn poised the little thimble on his big finger , with a sigh . `` How can I , when I do n't know where she is , and camp is all the home I 've got ! '' The words broke from him like a sudden groan , when some old wound is rudely touched . Both of the young men started , both laid back the relics they had taken up , and turned their eyes from Thorn 's face , across which swept a look of shame and sorrow , too significant to be misunderstood . Their silence assured him of their sympathy , and , as if that touch of friendliness unlocked his heavy heart , he eased it by a full confession . When he spoke again , it was with the calmness of repressed emotion , a calmness more touching to his mates than the most passionate outbreak , the most pathetic lamentation ; for the coarse camp-phrases seemed to drop from his vocabulary ; more than once his softened voice grew tremulous , and to the words `` my little girl , '' there went a tenderness that proved how dear a place she still retained in that deep heart of his . `` Boys , I 've gone so far ; I may as well finish ; and you 'll see I 'm not without some cause for my stern looks and ways ; you 'll pity me , and from you I 'll take the comfort of it .
It 's only the old story , -- I XXXXX her , worked for her , lived for her , and kept my little girl like a lady .
's assured keep marred married said spoke taken touching turned