“And pray, when may that by-and-bye be supposed to arrive?”

“Oh! some day when I am wounded or taken prisoner, and cannot do anything else; then I shall read a good deal.  Here’s Captain Oughton—­Captain Oughton, do you read much?”

“Yes, Mr Irving, I read a great deal.”

“Pray, may I take the liberty to ask you what you read?”

“What I read!  Why, I read Horsburgh’s Directory:—­and I read—­I read all the fights.”

“I think,” observed Ansell, “that if a man gets through the newspaper and the novels of the day, he does a great deal.”

“He reads a great deal, I grant you,” replied the major; “but of what value is that description of reading?”

“There, major,” replied Ansell, “we are at issue.  I consider a knowledge of the passing events of the day, and a recollection of the facts which have occurred during the last twenty years, to be more valuable than all the ancient records in existence.  Who talks of Caesar or Xenophon nowadays, except some Cambridge or Oxford prig? and of what value is that knowledge in society?  The escape of a modern pickpocket will afford more matter of conversation than the famous retreat of the ten thousand.”

“To be sure,” replied Captain Oughton; “and a fair stand-up fight between Humphreys and Mendoza create more interest than the famous battles of—­, I’m sure I forget.”

“Of Marathon and Thermopylae; they will do,” added Ansell.

“I grant,” replied the major, “that it is not only unnecessary, but conceited in those who would show their reading; but this does not disprove the advantages which are obtained.  The mind, well fed, becomes enlarged:  and if I may use a simile, in the same way as your horse proves his good condition by his appearance, without people ascertaining the precise quantity of oats which has been given him; so the mind shows, by its general vigour and power of demonstration, that it has been well supplied with ‘hard food.’”

“Very hard food indeed,” replied Captain Oughton; “nuts that I never could crack when I was at school, and don’t mean to break my teeth with now.  I agree with Mr Ansell, ’that sufficient for the day is the knowledge thereof.’”

“Well, as the tree of knowledge was the tree of evil, perhaps that is the correct reading,” replied Ansell, laughing; “Captain Oughton, you are a very sensible man; I hope we shall see you often at our mess, when we’re again on shore.”

“You may say so now,” replied Captain Oughton, bluntly, “and so have many more said the same thing to me; but you soldiers have cursed short memories in that way after you have landed.”

“I trust, Captain Oughton,” replied Major Clavering, “that you will not have to make that accusation general.”

“Oh! never mind, major; I never am affronted; the offer is made in kindness, and at the time sincere; but when people get on shore, and are so occupied with their own amusements, it is not to be wondered at if they are thoughtless and forget.  At one time, it did annoy me, I confess; for when I say I should be happy to see a man, I mean it; and if I did not mean it, I never would ask him.  I thought that other people did the same; but I have lived long enough to discover that a ‘general invitation’ means, ’don’t come at all.’”