hat it is to be a soldier."

This compliment was intended for Corporal 'Lige as a matter of course;
but he paid no other attention to it than to say:

"If the lad had profited by my teachings, he'd know that he has no right
to talk with outsiders while he's in the ranks."

"That's exactly it," Mr. Rice replied, wholly oblivious that the
corporal was administering what he believed to be a most severe rebuke.
"That is exactly it, my son, and you will do well to remember that you
cannot fail in your duty so long as you take pattern from the corporal."

The old soldier gave vent to what can be described only as a "snort" of
contempt; and the boy's sorrow was as nothing compared with what it had
been when bidding good-by to his mother.

After the young Rices had turned their faces homeward in obedience to
the orders of the elder Rice, Isaac gave more heed to copying the
movements of the corporal, thereby atoning in a certain measure for his
previous injudicious remarks.

The boy firmly believed that no more able soldier could be found in all
the colonies than this same Corporal 'Lige, and had any person ventured
to remark that the expedition might be as well off without him, Isaac
would have set the speaker down as one lacking common sense.

Take the corporal out of the ranks, and young Rice would have said there
was no possibility either Crown Point or Ticonderoga could be captured.

Thus it was that an order from Colonel Allen, Colonel Easton, or Seth
Warner was as nothing compared with one from Corporal 'Lige, in the mind
of Isaac Rice; but there were many in the ranks who did not have such an
exalted opinion of the old soldier, and these were free with their
criticisms and unfavorable remarks, much against the raw recruit's peace
of mind, as well as the corporal's annoyance.

It was because of these light-headed volunteers, who saw only in this
expedition a novel and agreeable form of junketing, out of which it was
their duty to extract all the sport possible regardless of the feelings
of others, that Corporal 'Lige withdrew himself, so to speak, from his
comrades, and barely acknowledged the salutes of any save his superior
officers.

At the end of the second day's journey he refused to go into camp with
them; but applied to the captain of his company for permission to
advance yet a short distance further, at which point he could join the
troops when they came forward next morning. It was known by all the
exp