being granted for this indulgence. This
relaxation was made up for, by their keeping
close for the rest of the evening; but as there
were generally two or three off duty
sufficiently at leisure to find cigars and
brandy-and-water attractive, even when consumed in
a guard-room, the hardship of Ensign Spoonbill's
official imprisonment was not very great.
With these friends, and these creature-
comforts to solace, the time wore easily away till
night fell, when the field-officer, if he was " a
good fellow," came early, and Ensign Spoonbill,
having given his friends their congé, was
at liberty to " turn in " for the night, the
onerous duty of visiting sentries and inspecting
the reliefs every two hours, devolving upon
the serjeant.

It may be inferred from these two examples
of Ensign Spoonbill's ideas of discipline and
the service, what was the course he generally
adopted when on duty, without our being
under the necessity of going into further
details. What he did when off duty helped
him on still more effectually.

Lord Pelican's outfit having " mounted"
the young gentleman, and the credit he
obtained on the strength of being Lord Pelican's
son, keeping his stud in order, he was enabled
to vie with the crackest of the crack
Hundredth; subject, however, to all the accidents
which horseflesh is heir to—especially when
allied to a judgment of which green was the
prevailing colour. A " swap " to a disadvantage;
an indiscreet purchase; a mistake as
to the soundness of an animal; and such
other errors of opinion, entailed certain losses,
which might, after all, have been borne, without
rendering the applications for money at
home, more frequent than agreeable; but
when under the influence of a natural obstinacy,
or the advice of some very " knowing
ones," Ensign Spoonbill proceeded to back his
opinion in private matches, handicaps, and
steeple-chases, the privy purse of Lady Pelican
collapsed in a most unmistakeable manner.
Nor was this description of amusement the
only rock-a-head in the course of the Honourable
Ensign. The art or science of betting
embraces the widest field, and the odds, given
or taken, are equally fatal, whether the subject
that elicits them be a match at billiards or a
horse-race. Nor are the stakes at
blind-hookey or unlimited loo less harmless, when
you hav'n't got luck and have such opponents
as Captain Cushion.

In spite of the belief in his own powers,
which Ensign Spoonbill encouraged, he could
not shut his eyes to the fact that he was
every day a loser;  but wiser gamblers than
he—if any there be—place reliance on a
"turn of luck," and all he wanted to enable
him to take advantage of it, was a command
of cash; for even one's best friends prefer the
coin of the realm to the most unimpeachable
I. O. U.

The want of money is a common dilemma,
—not the less disagreeable, however because
it is common—but in certain situations this
want is more apparent than real. The Hon.
Ensign Spoonbill was in the predicament of
impecuniosity; but there were—as a
celebrated statesman is in the habit of saying—
three courses open to him. He might leave
off play, and do without the money; he
might "throw himself" on Lord Pelican's
paternal feelings; or he might somehow
contrive to raise a supply on his own account.
To leave off just at the moment when he was
sure to win back all he had lost, would have
been ridiculous; besides, every man of spirit
in the regiment would have cut him. To
throw himself upon the generosity of his sire,
was a good poetical idea; but, practically, it
would have been of no value: for, in the first
place, Lord Pelican had no money to give—in
the next, there was an elder brother, whose
wants were more imperative than his own;
and lastly, he had already tried the experiment,
and failed in the most signal manner.
There remained, therefore, only the last expedient;
and being advised, moreover, to have
recourse to it, he went into the project tête
baissée. The " advice " was tendered in this
form.

"Well, Spooney, my boy, how are you, this
morning?" kindly enquired Captain Cushion,
one day on his return from parade, from
which the Honourable Ensign had been absent
on the plea of indisposition.

"Deuced queer," was the reply; " that
Roman punch always gives me the splittingest
headaches!"

"Ah! you 're not used to it. I 'm as fresh
as a four-year old. Well, what did you do
last night, Spooney?"

"Do"! why, I lost, of course; you ought to
know that."

"I—my dear fellow! Give you my honour
I got up a loser!"

"Not to me, though," grumbled the Ensign.

"Can't say as to that," replied the Captain;
"all I know is, that I am devilishly minus."

"Who won, then?  " enquired Spoonbill.

"Oh! " returned the Captain, after a slight
pause, " I suspect—Chowser—he has
somebody's luck and his own too!"

"I think he must have mine," said the
Ensign, with a faint smile, as the alternations
of the last night's Blind Hookey came more
vividly to his remembrance. "What did I
lose to you, Cushion? " he continued, in the
hope that his memory had deceived him.

The Captain's pocket-book was out in an
instant.

"Sixty-five, my dear fellow; that was all.
By-the-bye, Spooney, I 'm regularly hard up;
can you let me have the tin? I wouldn't
trouble you, upon my soul, if I could possibly
do without it, but I've got a heavy bill coining
due to-morrow, and I can't renew."

The Honourable Ensign sank back on his
pillow, and groaned impotently. Rallying,
however, from this momentary weakness, he
raised his head, and, after apostrophising the