she wouldn't blame
me." Unfortunately, however, when one promise has been broken, and nobody
hurt, another is broken so easily!

Ardent, sympathetic, fond of good-fellowship, Frank caught quickly the
spirit of those around him. He loved approbation, and dreaded any thing
that savored of ridicule. He disliked particularly the appellation of
"the parson," which John Winch, finding that it annoyed him, used now
whenever he wished to speak of him injuriously. Others soon fell into the
habit of applying to him the offensive title, without malice indeed, and
for no other reason, I suppose, than that nicknames are the fashion in
the army. To call a man simply by his honest name seems commonplace; but
to christen him the "Owl" if his eyes are big, or "Old Tongs" if his legs
are long, or "Step-and-fetch-it" if he suffers himself to be made the
underling and cats-paw of his comrades,--that is considered picturesque
and amusing.

Frank would have preferred any of these epithets to the one Winch had
fastened upon him. Perhaps it was to show how little he deserved it,
that he made his conduct appear as unclerical as possible--smoking,
swaggering, and, I am sorry to add, swearing. Imbibing unconsciously the
spirit of his companions, and imitating by degrees their habits and
conversation, he became profane before he knew it,--excusing himself on
the plea that every body swore in the army. This was only too near the
truth. Men who had never before indulged in profanity, now frequently let
slip a light oath, and thought nothing of it. For it is one of the great
evils of war that men, however refined at home, soon forget themselves
amid the hardships, roughness, and turbulence of a soldier's life. It
seems not only to disguise their persons, but their characters also; so
that those vices which would have shocked them when surrounded by the
old social influences appear rather to belong to their new rude, half
barbarous existence. And we all know the pernicious effect when numbers
of one sex associate exclusively together, unblessed by the naturally
refining influence of the other.

Such being the case with men of years and respectability, we need not
wonder that Frank should follow their example. Indeed, from the first, we
had but one strong ground of hope for one so young and susceptible--that
he would remember his pledges to his mother. These violated, the career
of ill begun, where would he end?

Here, however, I should state that