r sea-legs could
reach the swing and stride of the marching step; yet, to all appearance,
as unconcernedly at home as though they had been campaigning in the
Philippines since the date of their enlistment. This, to be sure, in the
case of more than half their number, would have given them scant time in
which to look about them, since raw recruits were more numerous than
seasoned men. But no matter what may be his lack of drill or preparation
the average Anglo-Saxon never seems to know the time when he doesn't know
how to fight. So, with all the easy assurance of a veteran, our Yankee
"Tommies" wriggled into their blanket rolls and trudged away to the posts
assigned them; and once more the army assumed the aggressive.

There were changes in the composition of the forces even before the move
began. The Dudes and the "Toughs" parted company; and the former, with
Stanley Armstrong once more riding silent at their head, joined forces
with Stewart's riddled regiment up the railway toward Malolos. Colonel
Frost had succeeded in convincing the surgeons that he would be as out of
place as his name itself in such a clime and climate, and was in daily
expectation of an order home. Billy Gray, mending only slowly, had been
sent to Corregidor, where the bracing breezes of the China Sea drove
their tonic forces through his lungs and veins, and the faintly rising
hue of coming health back into his hollow cheeks. The boy had been harder
hit than seemed the case at first, said the fellows of the --teenth; but
the wise young surgeon of the "Second Reserve" and a grave-faced colonel
of infantry could have told of causes little dreamed of in the
regiment--were either given to telling the half of what he knew.

That something most unusual had occurred in the room of Mr. Gray the day
that the sad-faced, kind old general visited the hospital at least half a
dozen patients could have told; for an attendant went running for one of
the women nurses, and the doctor himself hurried to the scene. It was on
his arm that, half an hour later, Mrs. Garrison slowly descended the
stairs, her flimsy white veil down, and silently bowed her thanks and
adieux as the doctor closed the door of her carriage and nodded to the
little coachman. It was the doctor who suggested to Colonel Frost that
Manila air was not conducive to his wife's recovery, and recommended
Nagasaki as the place for her recuperation until he could join her and
take her home. The Esmeralda