armly for his kindness, and said that, above all things, he
should like a commission in the army. He wrote a very tender and
affectionate letter to his mother, telling her how much he felt her
goodness in so promptly relinquishing her own plans, and in allowing
him to choose the life he liked.

"Thank Aggie," he concluded, "for the message she sent by you. Give her
my love, and don't let her forget me."

To the old soldier he wrote a gossipping account of his voyage.

"It was impossible," he said, "for the news of my discharge to have
come at a better moment. Thirty sailors from the fleet are going with
General Braddock's force, and everyone else is envying their good
luck--I among them. Now I shall go up, at once, and join the Virginian
regiment which is accompanying them. I shall join that, instead of
either of the line regiments, as I can leave when I like. Besides, if
the squire is able to get me a commission, it would have been
pleasanter for me to have been fighting here as a volunteer, than as a
private in the line.

"By the way, nobody thinks there will be much fighting, so don't let my
mother worry herself about me; but, at any rate, a march through the
great forests of this country, with a chance of a brush with the
redskins, will be great fun. Perhaps, by the time it is over, I may get
a letter from you saying that I have got my commission. As I hear there
is a chance of a regular war between the French and us out here, the
commission may be for a regiment on this side."

After finishing his letters, and giving them to the ship's corporal to
place in the next post bag, James said goodbye to his messmates, and
prepared to go on shore. The ten men chosen for the expedition were
also on the point of starting. Richard Horton was standing near, in a
state of great discontent that he had not been chosen to accompany them
in their expedition. James Walsham stepped up to him, and touched his
hat respectfully.

"I wish to thank you, Lieutenant Horton, for your extremely kind
letter, telling my friends that I was on board this ship. It has been
the means of my obtaining my discharge at once, instead of having to
serve, for many months, before I could send the news home and obtain an
answer in return."

Without another word he turned and, walking to the gangway, took his
place in a boat about starting with some sailors for the shore, leaving
Richard Horton in a state of fury, with himself, for having been the
m