"Then what is a massacre?" cried the frightened, but still curious
Henry.

"A massacre," replied his uncle, "is when a number of people are
slain--"

"I thought," returned Henry, "soldiers had been people!"

"You interrupted me," said the dean, "before I finished my sentence.
Certainly, both soldiers and sailors are people, but they engage to
die by their own free will and consent."

"What! all of them?"

"Most of them."

"But the rest are massacred?"

The dean answered, "The number who go to battle unwillingly, and by
force, are few; and for the others, they have previously sold their
lives to the state."

"For what?"

"For soldiers' and sailors' pay."

"My father used to tell me, we must not take away our own lives; but
he forgot to tell me we might sell them for others to take away."

"William," said the dean to his son, his patience tired with his