uch were my orders;' you must try and discover the spirit of your
orders. Above all things, you must never be afraid of responsibility.
Never be afraid of being found fault with when you know that you've done
what's right. I was going to tell you how we crossed the river Douro,
in Portugal; how we surprised Marshal Soult, and how Lord Wellington ate
the dinner which had been prepared for him and his staff. We very
nearly made him and his whole army prisoners, and we followed them up so
closely that they had no time to rest till they were clear out of
Portugal; but the hour is up. Fall in, young gentlemen; fall in!"

Ernest took this opportunity to go up to the Sergeant and to explain
that he would find Ellis a very willing though, perhaps, a very awkward
pupil, and begged that he would treat him accordingly, and not suppose
that his awkwardness arose from carelessness or idleness.

Sergeant Dibble looked at Ellis for a few moments. "No fear, Master
Bracebridge," he answered; "I've made a first-rate soldier out of far
worse materials. If he's the will, he'll soon get them long arms and
legs to do their duty. It's rather hard work to get a person who has no
ear to march in time, but that's to be overcome by perseverance, and the
eye must be made to do the work which the ear cannot. Fall in, Master
Ellis, if you please."

Ellis had no notion of what falling in meant, so he shuffled about from
place to place, looking up inquiringly at the Sergeant. "Take your
place, I mean, in the awkward squad, Master Ellis."

"That's where I shall always have to be," thought poor Ellis. "Which
are the awkwardest squad, Sergeant?" said he, looking up. "It strikes
me that I should go there."

Whatever Ellis thought of himself, there were several other boys just as
awkward, or at all events as unapt to learn military manners. Little
Eden was one of them, that is to say, he always forgot what he had
learned during his previous lesson. Gregson was another. He was not
awkward in his movements, but while instruction was going forward he was
always thinking of something else. One reason that Bracebridge
succeeded so well in whatever he undertook was, that he had the power of
concentrating his attention on whatever he was about; in the school-room
or play-room, in the cricket-field or on the parade-ground, it was the
same. It was his great talent. He had many other talents, and he also
had, from his earliest days, been well tr