India and my experiences there during the late mutiny. I need not bore
you with details; it is sufficient to say that my objections were talked
down one by one; and I left the office committed to a sixteen-page
article by the sixth of next month."

"You an author!" exclaimed the Major. "I should as soon have thought of
your enlisting in the Marines."

"It will only be for a few months, uncle--only till my limited stock of
experiences shall be exhausted. After that I shall be relegated to my
natural obscurity, doubtless never to emerge again."

"Hem," said the Major, nervously. "Geordie, my boy, I have by me one or
two little poems which I wrote when I was about nineteen--trifles flung
off on the inspiration of the moment. Perhaps, when you come to know
your friend the editor better than you do now, you might induce him to
bring them out--to find an odd corner for them in his magazine. I
shouldn't want payment for them, you know. You might just mention that
fact; and I assure you that I have seen many worse things than they are
in print."

"What, uncle, you an author! Oh, fie! I should as soon have thought of
your wishing to dance on the tight-rope as to appear in print. But we
must look over these little effusions--eh, Miss Hope. We must unearth
this genius, and be the first to give his lucubrations to the world."

"If you were younger, sir, or I not quite so old, I would box your
ears," said the Major, who seemed hardly to know whether to laugh or be
angry. Finally he laughed, George and Janet chimed in, and all three
went back indoors.