It was a thousand pities----though I believe, an' please your honour, I am going to say but a foolish kind of a thing for a soldier----
A soldier, cried my uncle _Toby_, interrupting the corporal, is no more exempt from saying a foolish thing, _Trim_, than a man of letters ----But not so often, an' please your honour, replied the corporal ----My uncle _Toby_ gave a nod.
It was a thousand pities then, said the corporal, casting his eye upon _Dunkirk_, and the mole, as _Servius Sulpicius_, in returning out of _Asia_ (when he sailed from _gina_ towards _Megara_), did upon _Corinth_ and _Pyreus_----
--"It was a thousand pities, an' please your honour, to destroy these works----and a thousand pities to have let them stood."----
----Thou art right, _Trim_, in both cases; said my uncle _Toby_. ----This, continued the corporal, is the reason, that from the beginning of their demolition to the end ----I have never once whistled, or sung, or laugh'd, or cry'd, or talk'd of past done deeds, or told your honour one story good or bad----
----Thou hast many excellencies, _Trim_, said my uncle _Toby_, and I hold it not the least of them, as thou happenest to be a story-teller, that of the number thou hast told me, either to amuse me in my painful hours, or divert me in my grave ones--thou hast seldom told me a bad one----
----Because, an' please your honour, except one of a _King of Bohemia and his seven castles_, --they are all true; for they are about myself----
I do not like the subject the worse, _Trim_, said my uncle _Toby_, on that score: But prithee what is this story? thou hast excited my curiosity.

'It was a thousand pities - though I believe I am going to say a foolish thing for a soldier-'
'A soldier,' cried my uncle Toby, 'is no more exempt from saying a foolish thing than a man of letters.'
'But not so often, your honour,' replied the corporal. '-It was a thousand pities, your honour, to destroy these works - and a thousand pities to have let them stood.'
'Thou art right, Trim,' said my uncle.
'This,' continued the corporal, 'is why during their demolition I have never once whistled, or sung, or laughed, or told your honour one story, good or bad-'
'Thou hast many excellencies, Trim,' said my uncle Toby, 'and of the stories thou hast told me, either to amuse me in my painful hours, or divert me in my grave ones, - thou hast seldom told me a bad one.'
'Because, your honour, except one of a King of Bohemia and his seven castles, they are all true; for they are about myself.'
'I do not like them worse on that score,' said my uncle Toby. 'But prithee what is this story? 