of its rations of pork and hard tack,
and filled it again with excellent bread and butter, slices of cold lamb,
and sponge cake. Moreover, a delightful repast was prepared for the
visitors, at which Frank laughed at his own awkwardness, declaring that
he had eaten from a tin plate so long, with his drumhead for a table,
that he had almost forgotten the use of china and napkins.

"If Hattie was only here now!" he said, again and again. For it needed
only his invalid sister's presence, during these few hours, to make him
perfectly happy.

"Eat generously," said the minister, "for it may be long before you sit
at a table again."

"Perhaps I never shall," thought Frank, but he did not say so lest he
might hurt his mother's feelings.

The minister was not at all such a person as he had expected to see, but
only a very pleasant gentleman, not at all stiffened with the idea that
he had the dignity of the profession to sustain. He was natural,
friendly, and quite free from that solemn affectation which now and then
becomes second nature in ministers some of us know, but which never fails
to repel the sympathies of the young.

Mr. Egglestone was expecting soon to go out on a mission to the troops,
and it was for this reason Mrs. Manly wished them to become acquainted.

"I wish you were going with our regiment," said Frank. "We have got a
chaplain, I believe, but I have never seen him yet, or seen any body who
has seen him."

"Well, I hope at least I shall meet you, if we both reach the seat of
war," said the minister, drawing him aside. "But whether I do or not, I
am sure that, with such a good mother as you have, and such dear sisters
as you leave behind, you will never need a chaplain to remind you that
you have something to preserve more precious than this mortal life of
ours,--the purity and rectitude of your heart."

This was spoken so sincerely and affectionately that Frank felt those few
words sink deeper into his soul than the most labored sermon could have
done. Mr. Egglestone said no more, but putting his arm confidingly over
the boy's shoulder, led him back to his mother.

And now the hour of parting had come. Frank's friends, including the
minister, went with him to the cars. Arrived at the depot, they found it
thronged with soldiers, and surrounded by crowds of citizens.

"O, mother!" said Frank, "you _must_ see our drum-major, old Mr.
Sinjin--my teacher, you know. There he is; I'll run and fetch him!"