eedom to do evil, or at least to do nothing, so he thought it
was the only place in the world to suit him.

A fine likely young man as William was, had no great difficulty to
get enlisted. The few forms were soon settled, he received the
bounty money as eagerly as it was offered, took the oaths of
allegiance, was joined to the regiment and heartily welcomed by his
new comrades. He was the happiest fellow alive. All was smooth and
calm. The day happened to be very fine, and therefore William always
reckoned upon a fine day. The scene was gay and lively, the music
cheerful, he found the exercise very easy, and he thought there was
little more expected from him.

He soon began to flourish away in his talk; and when he met with any
of his old servants, he fell a prating about marches and
counter-marches, and blockades, and battles, and sieges, and blood,
and death, and triumphs, and victories, all at random, for these
were words and phrases he had picked up without at all understanding
what he said. He had no knowledge, and therefore he had no modesty;
he had no experience, and therefore he had no fears.

All seemed to go on swimmingly, for he had as yet no trial. He began
to think with triumph what a mean life he had escaped from in the
old quarrelsome family, and what a happy, honorable life he should
have in the army. O there was no life like the life of a soldier!

In a short time, however, war broke out; his regiment was one of the
first which was called out to actual and hard service. As William
was the most raw of all the recruits, he was the first to murmur at
the difficulties and hardships, the cold, the hunger, the fatigue
and danger of being a soldier. O what watchings, and perils, and
trials, and hardships, and difficulties, he now thought attended a
military life! Surely, said he, I could never have suspected all
this misery when I used to see the men on the parade in our town.

He now found, when it was too late, that all the field-days he used
to attend, all the evolutions and exercises which he had observed
the soldiers to go through in the calm times of peace and safety,
were only meant to fit, train and qualify them for the actual
service which they were now sent out to perform by the command of
the king.

The truth is, William often complained when there was no real
hardship to complain of; for the common troubles of life fell out
pretty much alike to the great family which William had left, and to