CHAPTER FIFTEEN
IN popped Corporal Trim with Stevinus:-But 'twas too
late,-all the discourse had been exhausted without him,
and was running into a new channel.
-You may take
the book home again, Trim, said my
uncle Toby,
nodding to
him.
But prithee, Corporal, quoth my father,
drolling,-look
first into it, and see if thou canst
spy aught of a
sailing
chariot in it.
Corporal Trim, by being in the service, had learned to
obey,-and not to remonstrate;-so taking the book to a
side-table, and running over the leaves; an' please your
honour, said Trim, I can see no such thing;-however, con-
tinued the corporal, drolling a little in his turn, I'll make
sure work of it, an' please your honour;-so taking hold of
the two covers of the book, one in each hand, and letting
the leaves fall down, as he bent the covers back, he gave the
book a good sound shake.
There is something fallen out, however, said Trim, an'
please your honour;-but it is not a chariot, or any thing
like one:-Prithee, Corporal, said my father, smiling, what
is it then?-l think, answered Trim, stooping to take it up,
-'tis more like a sermon,-for it begins with a text of
scripture, and the chapter and verse;-and then goes on,
not as a chariot but like a sermon directly.
The company smiled.
I cannot conceive how it is possible, quoth my uncle Toby,
for such a thing as a sermon to have got into my Stevinus.
I think 'tis a sermon, replied Trim;
but if it please your
honours, as it is a fair hand, I will read you a page;-for
Trim, you must know, loved to hear himself read almost as
well as talk.
I have ever a strong propensity, said my father, to look
into things which cross my way, by such strange fatalities
as these;-and as we have nothing better to do, at least till
Obadiah gets back, I shall be obliged to you, brother, if Dr
Slop has no objection to it, to order
the corporal to give us
a page or two of it,-if he is as able to do it, as he seems
willing. An' please your honour, quoth Trim, I officiated
two whole campaigns in Flanders, as clerk to the chaplain
of the regiment.-He can read it, quoth my uncle Toby,
as well as I can.-Trim, I assure you, was the best scholar in
my company, and should have had the next halberd, but
for the fellow's misfortune. Corporal Trim laid his hand
upon his heart, and made an humble bow to his master;-
then laying down his hat upon the floor, and taking up the
sermon in his left hand, in order to have his right at liberty,
-he advanced, nothing doubting, into the middle of the
room, where he could best see, and be best seen by, his
audience.