go with the regiment. They are most anxious to learn. Now I shall be
glad if you can get them up to the mark. It will, of course, entail a
lot of extra trouble upon you, but if you can get them fit in time, I
will pay you a couple of guineas for your extra time."

"Thank you, sir," the corporal saluted. "I think I can manage it--at
any rate if I don't it won't be for want of trying."

"Who are those nice-looking lads I saw with you, Manley?" Major James
asked as the captain came into the messroom to lunch.

"Those are two buglers in his Majesty's Norfolk Rangers."

There was a general laugh.

"No, but really, Manley, who are they? I was quite struck with them;
good style of boys."

"It is a fact, major. Harding will tell you so," and he nodded to the
adjutant.

"Yes, Manley is saying the thing that's right," the adjutant answered.
"The doctor passed them, and I swore them in."

"I am sorry for it," the major said. "There were three or four of us
standing on the mess-room steps and we all noticed them. They were
gentlemen, if I ever saw one, and a hard life they will have of it
with the band boys. However, they are not likely to stay there. They
have run away from school, of course, and will be claimed. I wonder
you enlisted them."