bottles, with which they were well supplied. Making inquiries, the
boys found that the men belonged to a fine frigate which had come in a
day or two before, with several prizes.

The next morning they went down to the barracks. Several
non-commissioned officers, with bunches of gay ribbons in their caps,
were standing about. Outside the gates were some boards, with notices,
"Active young fellows required. Good pay, plenty of prize-money, and
chances, of promotion!"

The boys read several of these notices, which differed only from each
other in the name of the regiment; and then Tom gave an exclamation of
satisfaction as he glanced at a note at the foot of one of them, "Two
or three active lads wanted as buglers."

"There we are, Peter; and, oh, what luck! it is Uncle Peter's
regiment! Look here, Peter," he said, after a pause, "we won't say
anything about being his nephews, unless there is no other way of
getting taken; for if we do it won't be nice. We shall be taken notice
of, and not treated like other fellows, and that will cause all sorts
of ill-feeling and jealousy, and rows. It will be quite time to say
who we are when we have done something to show that we shan't do
discredit to him. You see it isn't much in our favor that we are here
as two runaway boys. If we were older we could go as volunteers, but
of course we are too young for that."

It should be mentioned that in those days it was by no means unusual
for young men who had not sufficient interest to get commissions to
obtain permission to accompany a regiment as volunteers. They paid
their own expenses, and lived with the officers, but did duty as