_(That was perfectly proper. People in camp have to forget that sort of
thing.)_

While they taught me to march and shoot.

_(Good lessons; worth learning.)_

She seemed to think me above the men

_(Made him corporal, most probably.)_

Who staid at their homes, you see;

_(And if he fought on principle he was above most of them.)_

Oh, had I jumped the bounty then,

_(Horrible idea!)_

It would have been better for me.

_(That's not so certain. To be sure, in that case he might have got a
good office in some of the Departments, or been made a Consul, but why
should he complain? He has a first-rate organ, and nobody hinders him
from sitting on the corner and grinding it the livelong day, if it
pleases him. And then there's the honor! His country may not think about
it, nor the people who give him pennies, but if he feels it himself,
what more need he want? How ridiculous it is for some persons to
insinuate that a rich and powerful people, who can grant hundreds of
thousands of dollars to railroad companies, and North Pole expeditions,