interest in us; and when we had overcome what
he called the " roodymans" of drill, we took an
interest in our instructions. We had a very stormy
debate about our uniform, discussed every
variety of grey and green, lost an exceedingly
efficient member by declining to adopt what he
called a " Garibaldi shako," but which in plain
English was a green waggoner's hat with a cock's
feather at the side, and finally settled upon a very
quiet and inexpensive dress. Then, of course,
after a very long delay, we received our supply
of rifles from the government, and all the
difficulties of drill were renewed; but we overcame
them at last, and even settled the great question
as to which was the best and most intelligible
word of command for shouldering arms –
"Shalloo humps!" as given by the sergeant, or
"Shoolah bice!" as dictated by the corporal. We
decided for " shalloo humps," and have stuck to
it ever since.

OUR RECEPTION IN PUBLIC.

It is almost unnecessary to say that our
formation has made an intense impression on the
Grimgribber mind, and that the first day of our
appearance in public was anxiously looked
forward to. We had purposely kept ourselves
unseen by any save our own immediate
relatives, and the unveiling of the Great Mokanna
never caused greater astonishment than did our
first outburst, preceded by the drums and
fifes of the United Order of Ancient Buffaloes.
We filed out two by two from the lecture-
hall and marched away to a field in the
neighbourhood, there to perform our evolutions.
Grimgribber was present in its entirety – the richest
and the poorest; the men of peace, and fighting
ruffians from the beer-shops; crinoline petticoats
bulged against drab shorts and white stockings;
short clay pipes leered over Cashmere
shawls. A roar of delight burst forth as we
turned out; we grasped our rifles firmly, raised
our heads, inflated our chests, and threw oul
our sixty left legs like one. It was a proud
moment, but we were made to feel that, after
all, we were but mortal, and the check we
received was given to us by a very small boy, who
looked at our ranks with a calmly critical eye,
and hit upon a fatal blot. "Ah! and ain't they
all of a size, neither!" he exclaimed. His remark
was greeted with laughter, for our tallest man
is six feet one, and our shortest (whom we
hide away in the centre of the company) is
only five feet two. However, we bore up
nobly; we felt that even the great Duke of
Wellington had been insulted in the streets;
and that we, who had not yet quite arrived a
bis eminence in military matters, ought to treat
our aggressors with placidity and good humour.
So we marched on to the field, and there went
through all our evolutions with a steadiness and
precision which entirely disarmed the boy, and
changed him from a jeering ribald into an
admiring spectator.

So it has been ever since; we have made quiet
and steady, but efficient, progress; our ranks
have been swelled by daily additions; we are
labouring away at our target practice, long
before the drowsy drabmen have moved from their
pillows; and I hope that at the next time of
writing I shall have to record that a prize at the
meeting of the National Rifle Association has been
gained by one of the Grimgribber volunteers.

MUTINY ABOARD THE MINNIE JIMPS.

"HARRY," said my friend Philip Bulkeley,
as we sat together after dinner in his comfortable
chambers in the Albany, "help yourself.
This is 'thirty-four."

The port might have been one thousand and
two, for anything I knew, or cared. So I said,
"Ha!" and smacked my lips, as though
recognising the flavour.

"Henry," resumed my friend – I am "Hal"
in his moods of highest mirth, "Harry" under
circumstances of calmer conviviality, "Henry,"
in the dumps – "Henry, it is too much the
fashion, now-a-days, to affect a callousness foreign
to one's real nature. If a fellow's in love – and
if, at some period of his life, he isn't, he must be
either fool or brute – he denies it to the
extremest limit of his conscience; nay, beyond it.
He abandons his club, and the other blessed
haunts of his boyish – I mean bachelor – days,
and is not again seen until, with defiant brow,
assumed for the occasion, he struts into the
morning-room a married man. He finds no
change in the demeanour of his friends. The
secretary is as obliging as ever, the waiters as
obsequious: he has lent himself in vain to a
mean deception. Why did he not speak out
like a man? Why be ashamed to admit the
truth to which every fibre of his manly frame
bore witness, that Selina Pettifold Tibbs was
more to him than all the billiards, the whist,
the cigars, the dogs, the horses, the etcetera,
in the universe? Henry, I reject, I repudiate
that course. I am in love," said Philip, rising,
and leaning his elbow on the mantelpiece; "I
confess, I glory in it. Proclaim it where you
list. I love, sir. And I don't care if I at once
connect with that admission the name of
Seraphina Pollinger."

"Toasts are almost out of date," I replied;
"but the 'thirty-four must pay for this."

We drank a bumper, Philip nodding gravely
in acknowledgment of the pledge, after which
he continued.

"'Laugh, and grow fat,' is all very well; but
it does appear both singular and ridiculous that
love should send a fellow up, in four months,
from nine-stone-nine to eleven-stone-threeI
Henry, I hate myself!"

An idea shot across my mind:
"Philip, my boy, go to sea!"

"To sea?"

"To sea. As an active hand."

"Too late – too late!" sighed Philip.

"Not at all. Buy a yaclit."

"Yacht! Hem!" said Philip, considering.

"I will join you," I exclaimed, in a burst of
friendly enthusiasm. " Philip, rely on me. We
will sink or swim together."