ely islands witnessed such a
sight as they now beheld. Seventeen large boats close hauled to a
splendid breeze swept in a great scattered mass through the high running
seas, dashing the foam from their bows as they dipped and rose under
their large lug-sails. Samuel Henderson led the way, proud of his new
position, and looked upon by the soldiers of his boat as the very acme
of an Indian. How the poor fellows enjoyed that day! no oar, no portage
no galling weight over rocky ledges, nothing but a grand day's racing
over the immense lake. They smoked-all day, balancing themselves on the
weather-side to steadv the boats as they keeled over into the heavy seas.
I think they would have-given even Mr. Riel that day a pipeful of
tobacco; but Heaven help him if they: had caught him two days later on
the portages of the Winnipeg! he would have had a hard time of it.

There has been some Hungarian poet, I think, who has found a theme for
his genius in the glories of the _private soldier. He had been a soldier
himself, and he knew the wealth of the mine hidden in the unknown and
unthought of Rank and File. It is a pity that the knowledge of that
wealth should not be more widely circulated.

Who are the Rank and File? They are the poor wild birds whose country
has cast them off, and who repay her by offering their lives for her
glory; the men who take the shilling, who drink, who drill, who march to
music, who fill the graveyards of Asia; the men who stand sentry at the
gates of world-famous fortresses, who are old when their elder brothers
are still young, who are bronzed and burned by fierce suns, who sail
over seas packed in great masses, who watch at night over lonely
magazines, who shout, "Who comes there?" through the darkness, who dig
in trenches, who are blown to pieces in mines, who are torn by shot and
shell, who have carried the flag of England into every land, who have
made her name famous through the nations, who are the nation's pride in
her hour of peril and her plaything-in her hour of prosperity--these
are the rank and file. We are a curious nation; until lately we bought
our rank, as we buy our mutton, in a market; and we found officers and
gentlemen where other nations would have found thieves and swindlers.
Until lately we flogged our files with a cat-o'-nine-tails, and found
heroes by treating men like dogs. But to return to the rank and file.

The regiment-which had been selected for the work of piercing thes