s."

"It's a dead miss, Muir," said the laughing Lundie; "and ye'll jist sit
down quietly with the disgrace."

"No, no, Major," Pathfinder at length observed; "the Quartermaster
_is_ a good shot for a slow one and a measured distance, though nothing
extr'ornary for real service. He has covered Jasper's bullet, as will be
seen, if any one will take the trouble to examine the target."

The respect for Pathfinder's skill and for his quickness and accuracy
of sight was so profound and general, that, the instant he made this
declaration, the spectators began to distrust their own opinions, and a
dozen rushed to the target in order to ascertain the fact. There, sure
enough, it was found that the Quartermaster's bullet had gone through
the hole made by Jasper's, and that, too, so accurately as to require
a minute examination to be certain of the circumstance; which, however,
was soon clearly established, by discovering one bullet over the other
in the stump against which the target was placed.

"I told ye, ladies, ye were about to witness the influence of science on
gunnery," said the Quartermaster, advancing towards the staging occupied
by the females. "Major Duncan derides the idea of mathematics entering
into target-shooting; but I tell him philosophy colors, and enlarges,
and improves, and dilates, and explains everything that belongs to human
life, whether it be a shooting-match or a sermon. In a word, philosophy
is philosophy, and that is saying all that the subject requires."

"I trust you exclude love from the catalogue," observed the wife of a
captain who knew the history of the Quartermaster's marriages, and who
had a woman's malice against the monopolizer of her sex; "it seems that
philosophy has little in common with love."

"You wouldn't say that, madam, if your heart had experienced many
trials. It's the man or the woman that has had many occasions to improve
the affections that can best speak of such matters; and, believe me,
of all love, philosophical is the most lasting, as it is the most
rational."

"You would then recommend experience as an improvement on the passion?"

"Your quick mind has conceived the idea at a glance. The happiest
marriages are those in which youth and beauty and confidence on one
side, rely on the sagacity, moderation, and prudence of years--middle
age, I mean, madam, for I'll no' deny that there is such a thing as a
husband's being too old for a wife. Here is Sergeant Dunham's