e finish of the campaign, and it's hard to find
oneself bowled over now, and sent home again like a useless old bale of
damaged goods.'

General Boswell was stumping the sloping deck with the aid of the
Captain's arm, getting his first hour of exercise since he came aboard.
All the snowy canvas was filled hard as iron with a noble level breeze,
and the ship was making a speed which would hardly have disgraced an
Atlantic liner of the modern day. She made a prettier sight than any
steam-driven craft ever made, or ever will make; and she carried a
better music with her in the taut wind-smitten cordage of the shrouds
and the deep organ hum of the stretched canvas.

'I am saying, Polson,' said the General, encountering the Sergeant
halfway along the deck, 'that it's unluckier for an old fellow to get
bowled over than it is for a young one. You may be as fit as a fiddle
again in a month or two, and may have your fill of fighting for Queen
and country; but I have done my last day's work, and that is a weary
thing to think of.'

'Last day's fighting, sir?' said Polson, 'but not the last day's work.
There's a heap to be done for the old country yet, and I hope that
Irene's dream may come true and that you may go into the House of
Commons and give those beggars at the War Office their proper fodder.'

'That is the business of a younger man than I am,' said the General,
'and I doubt if there's any mending in that direction. I have been at
the game now, off and on, for something like forty years, and I know
we have the best fighting stuff in the world at our command, but the
Department have always made it their business to cripple it and starve
it, and leave it naked and hungry. I've seen it in Spain, and in the Low
Countries, and I've dragged out three years of it in the old Mahratta
country, and it has always been the same. I suppose it always will be
until we learn that it is as necessary to have a soldier to look after
things at home as it is to have a soldier leading in the field. When we
get you home again, my lad, well run you for the Southern Division of
the county and you shall talk to 'em across the floor of the House of
Commons.'

The three men reached the bows of the good boat and turned, and there
was De Blacquaire before them with a weather-beaten servant holding him
by the elbow and piloting him along the deck. He saluted in passing, and
the General laid a hand upon his shoulder.

'I should like half an hour