The Three Lieutenants

Book Excerpt: ...care for; however, I hope that he will not be allowed to rust long on shore; little chance of it when once he has made himself known."Adair was in Ireland. "Things are not quite so bad as I expected to find them in the halls of my ancestors," he wrote. "Although the estate with its thousands of acres of forest and bog was knocked down as I told you, the old castle of Ballymacree, with a few dirty acres surrounding it, was bought back again, and still serves as a residence for my father and mother, and the best part of a score of my brothers and sisters, and the wives and husbands and children of the elder ones--a pretty large party we make, you may fancy. I felt myself quite lost at first among them all, and the noise and confusion which prevailed after the quiet and regularity of a man-of-war quite confounded me; however, I have got accustomed to it now, and can join heartily in the fun and frolic which goes on from morning till night, and considering my bashful and retiring disposition, this will sh...