is youngest son, George, on his fifth birthday, he bids him read all
the accounts he can find of the battles that had just been fought in the
Crimea--Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman--and when his father came home to
England again he would make him drawings, and show him how they were
fought. But little George had to understand the battles as best he
might, for his father never came back to explain them to him.

* * * * *

After serving in Persia during the early part of 1857, Havelock was
suddenly ordered to return to India to take part in the struggle which
gave him undying fame, and a grave at Lucknow before the year was out.
According to the testimony of Kaye the historian, for half a century he
had been seriously studying his profession, and knew every station
between Burmah and Afghanistan! 'Military glory,' says Kaye, 'was the
passion of his life, but at sixty-two he had never held an independent
command.'

Now, in the mutiny which had shaken our rule to its foundation, all
Havelock's study of warfare and all his experience were to bear fruit. A
great many causes had led up to that terrible outbreak of the native
soldiers, or sepoys, early in 1857. India is, as you perhaps know, a
huge country made up of different nations, some of whom are Mahometans,
or followers of the prophet Mahomet, and worshippers of one God, while
most of the rest have a number of gods and goddesses. These nations are
divided into various castes or classes, each with its own rules, and
the man of one caste will not eat food cooked by the man of another, or
touch him, or marry his daughter, lest he should become unclean.

It is easy to see how an army composed of all these races would be very
hard to manage, especially as it is impossible for any white man, who is
used to changes going on about him, really to understand the minds of
people who have followed the same customs from father to son for
thousands of years. And if it is difficult for the English officers to
understand the Hindoos, it is too much to expect that soldiers without
education should do so either.

The true cause of the mutiny which wrought such havoc in so short a time
in the north of India was that the number of our British soldiers had
been greatly reduced, and some had been sent to the Crimea, some to
Persia, and some to Burmah. Besides this, the government had been very
weak for many years in its dealings with the native troops. Whenev