n
was washed away--it's a terrible dangerous coast that ere Ern Bay. I've
'eeard my father speak on it."

"Them there werses is rippin'!" said Joe.

"Stunnin'!" exclaimed Bob.

And so they all agreed that it was a pretty song and "well put together."

"Capital," said the sergeant, "I never heard anything better, and as for
Mr. Wurzel, a man with his memory ought to do something better than feed
pigs."

"Ay, aye," said the company to a man.

"Why don't you follow my example?" said Harry; "it's the finest life in
the world for a young fellow."

"Well," said the sergeant, "that all depends; its very good for some, for
others not so good--although there are very few who are not pleased when
they once join, especially in such a regiment as ours!"

"And would you mind telling me, sir," asked Outofwork, "what sort of
chaps it don't suit?"

"Well, you see, chaps that have been brought up in the country and tied
to their mothers' apron strings all their life: they have such soft
hearts, they are almost sure to cry--and a crying soldier is a poor
affair. I wouldn't enlist a chap of that sort, no, not if he gave me ten
pounds. Now, for instance, if Mr. Wurzel was to ask my advice about
being a soldier I should say 'don't!'"

"Why not, sir?" asked Joe; "how's that there, then? D'ye think I be
afeard?"

"I should say, go home first, my boy, and ask your mother!"

"I be d---d if I be sich a molly-coddle as that, nuther; and I'll prove
un, Mr. Sergeant; gie me thic bright shillin' and I be your man."

"No," said the sergeant, "think it over, and come to me in a month's
time, if your mother will let you. I don't want men that will let their
masters buy them off the next day."

"No; an lookee here, Maister Sergeant; I bean't to be bought off like
thic, nuther. If I goes, I goes for good an' all."

"Well, then," said the sergeant, shaking him by the hand, and pressing
into it the bright shilling, "if you insist on joining, you shall not say
I prevented you: my business is not to prevent men from entering Her
Majesty's service."

Then the ribbons were brought out, and Joe asked if the young woman might
sew them on as she had done Harry's; and when she came in, Joe looked at
her, and tried to put on a military bearing, in imitation of his great
prototype; and actually went so far as to address her as "My dear," for
which liberty he almost expected a slap in the face. But Lucy only
smiled graciously, and said: "B