flagrant mutiny and were shot for it. Their names were Jakin and
Lew - Piggy Lew and they were bold, bad drummer-boys, both of them
frequently birched by the Drum-Major of the Fore and Aft.
-
Jakin was a stunted child of fourteen, and Lew was about the same
age. When not looked after, they smoked and drank. They swore
habitually after the manner of the Barrack-room, which is cold
swearing and comes from between clenched teeth, and they fought
religiously once a week. Jakin had sprung from some London gutter,
and may or may not have passed through Dr. Barnardo's hands ere he
arrived at the dignity of drummer-boy. Lew could remember nothing
except the Regiment and the delight of listening to the Band from
his earliest years. He hid somewhere in his grimy little soul a
genuine love for music, and was most mistakenly furnished with the
head of a cherub: insomuch that beautiful ladies who watched the
Regiment in church were wont to speak of him as a "darling." They
never heard his vitriolic comments on their manners and morals, as
he walked back to barracks with the Band and matured fresh causes
of offence against Jakin.

The other drummer-boys hated both lads on account of their
illogical conduct. Jakin might be pounding Lew, or Lew might be
rubbing Jakin's head in the dirt, but any attempt at aggression on
the part of an outsider was met by the combined forces of Lew and
Jakin; and the consequences were painful. The boys were the
Ishmaels of the corps, but wealthy Ishmaels, for they sold battles
in alternate weeks for the sport of the barracks when they were
not pitted against other boys; and thus amassed money.

On this particular day there was dissension in the camp. They had