much chance of their being claimed."

"You are full young," the colonel said, "and I think you will be
sorry, boys, for the step you want to take."

"I don't think so, sir," Tom said.

"Of course, you don't at present," the colonel said. "However, that is
your business. Mind, you will have a rough time of it; you will have
to fight your way, you know."

"I'll back them to hold their own," Captain Manley said, laughing.
"When I went out at the barrack-gate just now there was a row among a
lot of recruiting sergeants, and when I went up to put a stop to it, I
found that a fellow of the 15th had chaffed these boys when they went
up to speak to Summers, and that they had got the best of it in that
line; and the fellow having lost his temper and struck one of them, he
found himself on his back on the pavement. The boy had tripped him up
in an instant."

The colonel laughed, and then said suddenly and sharply to Peter,
"Where did you learn that trick, youngster?"

"At Eton," Peter answered promptly, and then colored up hotly at his
brother's reproachful glance.

"Oh, ho! At Eton, young gentlemen, eh!" the colonel said. "That
alters the matter. If you were at Eton your family must be people of
property, and I can't let you do such a foolish thing as enlist as
buglers."