is the
testimony of one who had made the trial.

'To the habit of early rising and husbanding my time well, more than to
any other thing, I owed my very extraordinary promotion in the army. I
was _always ready_. If I had to mount guard at _ten_, I was ready at
_nine_: never did any man, or any thing, wait one moment for me. Being,
at an age _under twenty years_, raised from corporal to sergeant major
_at once_, over the heads of thirty sergeants, I should naturally have
been an object of envy and hatred; but this habit of early rising
really subdued these passions.

'Before my promotion, a clerk was wanted to make out the morning report
of the regiment. I rendered the clerk unnecessary; and, long before any
other man was dressed for the parade, my work for the morning was all
done, and I myself was on the parade ground, walking, in fine weather,
for an hour perhaps.

'My custom was this: to get up, in summer, at daylight, and in winter
at four o'clock; shave, dress, even to the putting of my sword-belt
over my shoulder, and having my sword lying on the table before me,
ready to hang by my side. Then I ate a bit of cheese, or pork, and
bread. Then I prepared my report, which was filled up as fast as the
companies brought me in the materials. After this, I had an hour or two
to read, before the time came for any duty out of doors, unless when
the regiment, or part of it, went out to exercise in the morning. When
this was the case, and the matter was left to me, I always had it on
the ground in such time as that the bayonets glistened in the _rising
sun_; a sight which gave me delight, of which I often think, but which
I should in vain endeavor to describe.

'If the _officers_ were to go out, eight or ten o'clock was the hour.
Sweating men in the heat of the day, or breaking in upon the time for
cooking their dinner, puts all things out of order, and all men out of
humor. When I was commander, the men had a long day of leisure before
them: they could ramble into the town or into the woods; go to get
raspberries, to catch birds, to catch fish, or to pursue any other
recreation, and such of them as chose, and were qualified, to work at
their trades. So that here, arising solely from the early habits of one
very young man, were pleasant and happy days given to hundreds.'

For my own part, I confess that only a few years since, I should have
laughed heartily at some of these views, especially the cold water
system of sha