only it's straight up and down, like your cane,
with 'nothing' scored across the belly of it,
and plenty of tail to bring up the rear. But
we wanted no thermometer to tell us it was
could in Novy Skoshy, where the water froze
over the fire; and if a man handled his piece
awkwardly, he maybe left the skin of his
fingers sticking to the barrel."

The majority of Mac Manus's auditors gave
a furtive glance at their horny hands as he
made this announcement.

"It's clumsy work tossing Brown Bess
about in gloves," continued Mac Manus;
"but you must do it there if you want to keep
out of hospital—ay, and wash your face in
snow if you're frostbitten; or, perhaps, you
may lave your ears behind you, and wake
with a blue nose like the native Haligonians!
How any of us presarved a feature of our
faces is more than I can tell you; for when
we got outside the barrack-yard, and were
marched off in the dark to Rockingham,
where his Royal Highness lived, a place
between five and six miles off, the Barber got
a-hould of us, and—"

"Was it the barber of the ridgement?"
interrupted Maurice, whose beard had not
yet begun to sprout.

"Ay, and garrison too, my lad—the
universal barber—he had a roving commission,
as the sailors say; but I'll tell you, boys
'The Barber' is the name the Haligonians
give to the north-wester, that cuts in them
parts sharper than any razor. You've about
six months' winter, dead-on-end, in that
climate, and he blows pretty nigh all the
time. Well, we had this to face on our march,
two hours of it, pitch dark, with creepers on
our feet and heavy packs on our backs, and
what for? To be overhauled by his Royal
Highness and staff, almost afore they could
see whether we was the soldiers they came
out to inspect, or so many ridgments of half-
friz Novy Skoshian bears! Faith, the bears
had the best of it, for they had no tails to tie
or pomatum to use—though they're said to
furnish it in plenty—and only comes out
when they're hunger-driven, but stays at
home, for the most part, sleepin' and suckin'
their paws. The devil a much sleep did we
get, with three nights in bed for garrison
duty, and two out of it every week for parade
at Rockingham, at half-past six on a winter's
mornin' in heavy marching order! And then
the sentries, whether it war on the dockyard
wharf, or in the fort, high or low, the could
got at you and nipped you like a vice. Oh,
there was one post on the brow of the hill,—
many's the time I never expected to be alive
when the relief came round, and more than
one poor fellow took his last sleep in that
sentry box, not from neglect of duty, but in
respect of the drowsiness which bate 'em
entirely. Once give way to it, boys, and it's
all up with you!"

"And is it so cold as this all the year
round?" asked one of his hearers.

"It is not" replied Mac Manus with
emphasis. "Try a three hours drill on the
common in summer, and see what you'll
make of it. Talk of the glass then; it's at
boiling hate, and the birds in the air fall down
ready roasted. Or go into the woods, and a
pumpkin's a fool to the size of your head,
after being stung to death with the black flies
and muskeeties, when you come out again.
But these is all the accidents of climate, boys.
There's plenty to make up for them
inconveniences. Speruts is dirt chape (hear, hear,
from Corporal Rattler), 'specially Prince
Edward's Island Whiskey; mate of all kinds
is raysonable, and so is greens, and the like,
and 'taties; fish is to be had for a song, and
they throw the lobsters at you, if you just
looked at 'em. A lad, when he's off duty,
may go out of an afthernoon and ate as many
ras'b'ries off the rocks as would keep a pastry-
cook in jam for a twelvemonth. Then there's
the fogs and the snow when you can't go out
to drill (Barrack-room drill can always be
had, suggested Corporal Rattler), and the
sleigh-driving, and the snow-balling, and the
sliding down hill—for it's all down hill at
Halifax—and the officers' plays, and all kinds
of divarsions of which you partake, more or
less. Oh, take my word for it, there's worse
places in the world than Novy Skoshy, and
some of us'll live to find that out."

In this exposé of Mac Manus there was
enough, and more than enough, to set his
audience thinking, and many were the
speculations to which it gave birth; but, on
the whole, the men were well enough pleased
with their destination. It seldom happens
otherwise, for no class is so fond of change
and movement as the soldier, and that, at
least, was secured by the order to march.
How the march or transit was to be
conducted, was another affair, and that it is our
business now to describe.

Four transports were immediately taken up
by government, and, as fast as they were got
ready, were sent round to Liverpool, to
receive the number of troops allotted to each.
It will be enough for our purpose to
select that which bore Maurice and his
fortunes.

An embarkation, however, is never a very
satisfactory performance, even in private life;
but when the "small family party" consists
of a couple of hundred soldiers, a good many
of them not very sober, with their wives, their
children, their pet dogs, their bird-cages,
their arm-chests, their bandboxes, bundles,
and other impedimenta, the pleasures of travel
are not very greatly enhanced. It is pleasant
enough, marching out of barracks to the tune
of "The Girl I left behind me," but before
your troops are fairly settled down in your
transport, a variety of "disagreeables" have
to be encountered.

The worst of these occur on board the
transport; but it is no trifling task to get
everybody fairly into the boats; and a drover's