l, except the sounds of the aforenamed instrument, prevailed the din
of noisy, but good-humoured colloquy, in sonorous Gaelic; for no other
language was ever heard in the warlike domicile of Serjeant M'Nab.

Such, then, was the house--further distinguished, we forgot to say, by
the sign of the Ram's Head--to which James M'Intyre and Roderick
M'Leod now repaired. They were met at the door by M'Nab, then in the
act of bidding good-by to a batch of serjeants, who, adjusting their
bonnets as they stepped, one after the other, from beneath the low
doorway of the Ram's Head, were about to form a recruiting party to
beat up through the streets for young aspirants after military
glory--a single drummer and fifer being in attendance for this
purpose.

"Ah, Shames! Ou Rory!" exclaimed M'Nab, taking each of the young men,
who were both well known to him (he being from the same part of the
country), by the hand; "what has brought you" (we translate, for this
was spoken in Gaelic) "to this quarter of the world?"

The lads smiled, and said they would inform him of that presently.
Accustomed to such visits, for such a purpose as M'Intyre and M'Leod
now made, M'Nab at once guessed their object, and, without any further
remark, conducted them into his own private apartment, where, the tact
of the recruiting serjeant and the natural hospitality of the man
combining, he entertained them liberally with the best his house
afforded. During this refection, the young men made known the object
of their visit. The serjeant highly approved of their spirit,
descanted on the glories of a soldier's life, stirred up their
ambition of military fame by recounting various exploits performed by
relations and acquaintances of their own with whom he had served, and
concluded by tendering them the ominous shilling. It was accepted, and
James M'Intyre and Roderick M'Leod became soldiers in His Majesty's
--th regiment of foot.

Desirous, however, as the young men were of enlisting, there was a
condition which they insisted on being conceded them, before they
finally committed themselves. This was, that they should continue
comrades after they became soldiers; that is, as is well known to
every one in the least conversant with these matters, that they should
occupy the same bed, and be placed in a position to render each other
the little services of domestic intercourse in quarters.

M'Nab at once promised that their wishes in this respect should be
comp